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MEMOIR 


ELI    WHITNEY,    ESQ. 


DENISON^OLMSTED, 

PROFESSOR  OF  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY  AND  ASTRONOMY,  YALE  COLLEGE. 


First  published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  for  1832. 


NEW  HAVEN: 

DURRIE    &    PECK 

PECK  &  STAFFORD,  PRINTERS. 


P 

I 


MEMOIR 


ELI   WHITIEY,   ESQ 


DENISON  OLMSTED, 

PROFESSOR  OF  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY  AND  ASTRONOMY,  YALE  COLLEGE. 


First  published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  for  1832. 


NEW  HAVEN: 

DURRIE    &   PECK 

PECK  &  STAFFORD,  PRINTERS. 
1846. 


•  »        » 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction, 5 

Birth  and  Ancestry, ,..»•,-,.•.  {- .„,,»  ,,    .  5 

Childhood, ,/     ..    •   .  '".'v'jA^^i.iX.-1  .«:.•,,,••;'•'  6 

Early  indications  of  Mechanical  Genius,      .i^^Atfl^^^f..'  V*    •;!»  -  ^i*  v  ''-*\^$ 

Enterprising  spirit  in  boyhood,      •  ,     i       *        .        .        •        •        •   -.,>..  8 

Preparation  for  College,   .        .        •        »        .       f*>}<*i*vT •••''!•-•!-•,   ,r*  •  •  ?••  *.      '  ^ 

College  life, ;    *    .    .  10 

First  visit  to  Georgia  as  a  Teacher, 12 

Disappointments,          .        .        ,'    '    •                .         .        .        .        •        •  12 

Residence  in  the  family  of  General  Greene, 12 

Incident  that  led  to  the  Invention  of  the  Cotton  Gin, 13 

First  steps  toward  the  Invention, 14 

Liberal  encouragement  of  Mrs.  Greene,        .        *;.  .;.  .Jj  ''*  '•  vV-.M-  *  •';/;•  ^ 

Connection  with  Phineas  Miller,  Esq. 15 

Excitement  on  the  first  knowledge  of  the  Invention, 16 

Copartnership  of  Miller  &  Whitney, 16 

Steps  to  obtain  a  Patent,      .        .        *'*Vij-:     .        .        .,.,,'«        •  J7 

Encouragement  of  Mr.  Jefferson,    ......        f'  ,    *        .  17 

Plan  of  operations, 18 

Great  scarcity  of  Money,        ......      .,•,,.•<.»  •<*»-.:    *".      .18 

Sickness  of  Mr.  Whitney,    .        .        .        ,        .       \  •     .        .        .        .  19 

General  resort  to  Cotton  Planting,    .        .      '•<..     «_     .  •  •    ^-    <»'      •         .20 

Competition  for  the  Invention,      . '      * •        .  20 

Loss  of  Manufactory  by  fire, ...  21 

Great  fortitude  of  the  Partners, 21 

Pecuniary  embarrassments,      .        .        .        .        .        «^      .f'    ,''•'       * ;,     .22 

Sad  news  from  the  English  manufacturers,  .        ./.v^./,,./    ....  22 

Prejudices  excited  against  the  machine, 23 

Opposition  and  increasing  embarrassments, 23 

Alliance  with  Mr.  J.  C.  Nightingale,       .                        24 

Disastrous  state  of  the  concern, 25 

Personal  struggles  and  self-denial  of  Mr.  Whitney,  ....     •^.  •',     .  25 

Brighter  prospects,       .        .        .        .        *   '-•••'* •'  • '  .        .        .        .       ,.  26 

Unfortunate  issue  of  the  first  Patent  suit,       ,,  ....      ,.       .     .  *  f   .  26 

Account  of  the  Trial,  .        .        ,        .        .       V      ,        .'      ..       '.        .  26 

Desperate  state  of  the  concern,        .        .        •    .    •       .       «       »s"     .        .  27 

Negotiations  with  South  Carolina  for  sale  of  Patent, 28 

Purchase  by  the  State, 30 

Negotiations  with  North  Carolina, 31 


Negotiations  with  Tennessee,  .        .        ..-•••-       .       -•<*:»        .31 

Attempts  to  annul  these  contracts,        « ..    .f        k 31 

Violent  opposition  in  Georgia, 32 

Honorable  measures  of  South  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and  Tennessee,      .  33 

First  favorable  decision  on  the  Patent,      .        •       • 41 

Celebrated  Charge  of  Judge  Johnson, 44 

Successful  suits  in  Georgia, 46 

Report  of  Trials,  .                                          46 

Great  exertions  and  sufferings  of  the  Patentee, 46 

New  enterprise  of  Mr.  Whitney, 47 

Contract  with  the  United  States  for  the  manufacture  of  Arms,         .        .        .47 

Difficulties  of  the  undertaking, 48 

Advantageous  site  of  the  Manufactory,    .    -'  ,J'?   ;'*  ""•  '^ ".    '  -^      .        .  49 

Slow  progress  of  the  works, 49 

Great  diligence  of  the  Proprietor, 49 

Low  state  of  the  Mechanic  Arts,  and  great  improvements  by  Mr.  Whitney,  50 

Commendations  of  Governor  Tompkins  and  Governor  Wolcott,      '•"     •'      .  50 

111  success  of  other  contracts, «        ^«yi — -  m  53 

Mechanical  skill  exhibited  by  Mr.  Whitney, 52 

Account  of  his  system, 53 

Public  advantages  of  it,   .'       »•       »r  •'.«*•"      *\     <£'       •        .        v     '  .'  '      .  54 

Petition  for  a  renewal  of  the  Patent,    .        <^«*»'^r»  '&$£  t-ijfc     ...  55 

Requited  by  Congress,      .        .        .        .        sT;-* 57 

Letter  to  Robert  Fulton,       's    ^,r&^"  ^'    J' I8     '  ,v    '  .  .     .        .'  '  :  .        .  58 

Marriage  of  Mr.  Whitney,       .        .        .        .     '  .    ';  ."      V       ...  59 

Prospects  of  happiness, 59 

First  attack  of  illness, '.'•'.."'•        •  -59 

Progress  and  fatal  termination, 60 

Respect  of  his  fellow  citizens,  .        .        .        .•«•«'.        .        .        .60 

Eulogy  of  President  Day,    .        »        r       j        i        4        ....  60 

Character, ''  V"  *  'V  '     ,        .  61 

Importance  of  his  labors  to  society,      .        .        .        ;'v    ^       V   "\        .  63 

Early  statistics  of  the  Cotton  trade, 63 

Contrast  with  its  present  state, 64 

Reflections, .  64 

REMINISCENCES  OF  PROFESSOR  SILLIMAN, 66 

APPENDIX,       .-      .        ••  •'->•  •-'.     «•      .*  -•*.        .        .        .        •        .        .77 


MEMOIR. 


THE  memory  of  the  late  Mr.  Whitney  is  so  fondly  cherished 
by  his  fellow  citizens,  out  of  respect  to  his  distinguished  tal- 
ents, his  private  virtues,  and  his  public  spirit,  and  his  name 
holds  so  honorable  a  place  among  the  benefactors  of  our  coun- 
try, that  the  wish  has  often  been  intimated  to  us  of  seeing  a 
more  extended  biography  of  him,  than  has  hitherto  been  given 
to  the  public. 

We  now  enter  with  pleasure  upon  such  a  task  ;  and  to  en- 
able us  to  do  the  better  justice  to  the  subject,  we  have  been 
favored  with  access  to  his  extensive  correspondence,  and  to  all 
his  other  writings,  and  have  conferred  freely  with  various  per- 
sons, who  were  long  and  intimately  acquainted  with  him. 

ELI  WHITNEY  was  born  at  Westborough,  Worcester  County, 
Massachusetts,  December  8,  1765.  His  parents  belonged  to 
the  middle  class  in  society,  who,  by  the  labors  of  husbandry, 
managed,  by  uniform  industry  and  strict  frugality,  to  provide 
well  for  a  rising  family.  From  the  same  class  have  arisen 
most  of  those  who,  in  New  England,  have  attained  to  high 
eminence  and  usefulness  ;  nor  is  any  other  situation  in  society 
so  favorable  to  the  early  formation  of  those  habits  of  econ- 
omy, both  of  time  and  money,  which,  when  carried  forward 
into  the  study  of  the  scholar,  or  the  field  of  active  enterprise, 
afford  the  surest  pledge  of  success. 

The  paternal  ancestors  of  Mr.  Whitney  emigrated  from 
England  among  the  early  settlers  of  Massachusetts,  and  their 
descendants  were  among  the  most  respectable  farmers  of 
Worcester  County.  His  maternal  ancestors,  of  the  name  of 
FAY,  were  also  English  emigrants,  and  ranked  among  the  sub- 
stantial yeomanry  of  Massachusetts.  A  family  tradition  re- 
specting the  occasion  of  their  coming  to  this  country,  may 
serve  to  illustrate  the  history  of  the  times.  The  story  is,  that, 


6 

%      J' 

about  two  hundred  years  ago,  the  father  of  the  family,  who 
resided  in  England,  a  man  of  large  property  and  great  re- 
spectability, called  together  his  five  sons  and  addressed  them 
thus  :  "  America  is  to  be  a  great  country  ;  I  am  too  old  to  em- 
igrate to  it  myself;  but  if  any  one  of  you  will  go,  I  will  give 
him  a  double  share  of  my  property."  The  youngest  son  in- 
stantly declared  his  willingness  to  go,  and  his  brothers  gave 
their  consent.  He  soon  set  off  for  the  New  World,  and  land- 
ed at  Boston,  in  the  neighborhood  of  which  place  he  purchased 
a  large  tract  of  land,  where  he  enjoyed  the  satisfaction  of  re- 
ceiving two  visits  from  his  venerable  father.  His  son,  John 
Fay,  from  whom  the  subject  of  this  memoir  is  immediately 
descended,  removed  from  Boston  to  Westborough,  where  he 
became  the  proprietor  of  a  large  tract  of  land,  since  known 
by  the  name  of  the  Fay-Farm. 

From  Mrs.  B.,  the  sister  of  Mr.  Whitney,  we  have  derived 
some  particulars  respecting  his  childhood  and  youth,  and  we 
shall  present  the  anecdotes  to  our  readers  in  the  artless  style 
in  which  they  are  related  by  our  correspondent,  believing  that 
they  would  be  more  acceptable  in  this  simple  dress,  than  if, 
according  to  the  modest  suggestion  of  the  writer,  they  should 
be  invested  with  a  more  labored  diction.  The  following  in- 
cident, though  trivial  in  itself,  will  serve  to  show  at  h.ow  early 
a  period  certain  qualities  of  strong  feeling,  tempered  by  pru- 
dence, for  which  Mr.  Whitney  afterwards  became  distin- 
guished, began  to  display  themselves.  When  he  was  six  or 
seven  years  old,  he  had  overheard  the  kitchen-maid,  in  a  fit  of 
passion,  calling  his  mother,  who  was  in  a  delicate  state  of  health, 
hard  names,  at  which  he  expressed  great  displeasure  to  his 
sister.  "  She  thought  (said  he)  that  I  was  not  big  enough  to 
know  any  thing ;  but  I  can  tell  her,  I  am  too  big  to  hear  her 
talk  so  about  by  mother.  I  think  she  ought  to  have  a  flog- 
ging, and  if  I  knew  how  to  bring  it  about,  she  should  have 
one."  His  sister  advised  him  to  tell  their  father.  "No,  (he 
replied,)  that  will  not  do  ;  it  will  hurt  his  feelings  and  mother's 
too:  and  besides,  it  is  likely  the  girl  wilt  say  she  never  said 
so,  and  that  would  make  a  quarrel.  It  is  best  to  say  nothing 
about  it." 


Indications  of  his  mechanical  genius  were  likewise  devel- 
oped at  a  very  early  age.  Of  his  early  passion  for  such  em- 
ployments, his  sister  gives  the  following  account.  "  Our  fa- 
ther had  a  workshop,  and  sometimes  made  wheels,  of  differ- 
ent kinds,  and  chairs.  He  had  a  variety  of  tools,  and  a  lathe 
for  turning  chair-posts.  This  gave  my  brother  an  opportu- 
nity of  learning  the  use  of  tools  when  very  young.  He  lost 
no  time ;  but  as  soon  as  he  could  handle  tools  he  was  always 
making  something  in  the  shop,  and  seemed  not  to  like  work- 
ing on  the  farm.  On  a  time,  after  the  death  of  our  mother, 
when  our  father  had  been  absent  from  home  two  or  three  days, 
on  his  return,  he  inquired  of  the  housekeeper,  what  the  boys 
had  been  doing  ?  She  told  him  what  B.  and  J.  had  been  about. 
But  what  has  Eli  been  doing  ?  said  he.  She  replied,  he  has 
been  making  a  fiddle.  *  Ah  !  (added  he  despondingly,)  I  fear 
Eli  will  have  to  take  his  portion  in  fiddles/  He  was  at  this 
time  about  twelve  years  old.  His  sister  adds,  that  this  fiddle 
was  finished  throughout,  like  a  common  violin,  and  made  tol- 
erably good  music.  It  was  examined  by  many  persons,  and 
all  pronounced  it  to  be  a  remarkable  piece  of  work  for  such  a 
boy  to  perform.  From  this  time  he  was  employed  to  repair 
violins,  and  had  many  nice  jobs,  which  were  always  executed 
to  the  entire  satisfaction,  and  often  to  the  astonishment,  of  his 
customers.  His  father's  watch  being  the  greatest  piece  of  me- 
chanism that  had  yet  presented  itself  to  his  observation,  he  was 
extremely  desirous  of  examining  its  interior  construction,  but 
was  not  permitted  to  do  so.  One  Sunday  morning,  observing 
that  his  father  was  going  to  meeting,  and  would  leave  at  home 
the  wonderful  little  machine,  he  immediately  feigned  illness  as 
an  apology  for  not  going  to  church.  As  soon  as  the  family 
were  out  of  sight,  he  flew  to  the  room  where  the  watch  hung, 
and  taking  it  down,  he  was  so  delighted  with  its  motions,  that 
he  took  it  all  in  pieces  before  he  thought  of  the  consequences 
of  his  rash  deed ;  for  his  father  was  a  stern  parent,  and  pun- 
ishment would  have  been  the  reward  of  his  idle  curiosity,  had 
the  mischief  been  detected.  He,  however,  put  the  work  all 
so  neatly  together,  that  his  father  never  discovered  his  auda- 
city until  he  himself  told  him,  many  years  afterwards." 


Whitney  lost  his  mother  at  an  early  age,  and  when  he  was 
thirteen  years  old,  his  father  married  a  second  time.  His  step- 
mother, among  her  articles  of  furniture,  had  a  handsome  set 
of  table  knives,  she  valued  very  highly,  which  our  young 
mechanic  observing,  said  to  her,  *  I  could  make  as  good  ones, 
if  I  had  tools,  and  I  could  make  the  necessary  tools,  if  I  had  a  few 
common  tools  to  make  them  with/  His  step-mother  thought  he 
was  deriding  her,  and  was  much  displeased  ;  but  it  so  happened 
not  long  afterwards,  that  one  of  the  knives  got  broken,  and  he 
made  one  exactly  like  it  in  every  respect,  except  the  stamp  on 
the  blade.  This  he  would  likewise  have  executed,  had  not  the 
tools  required  been  too  expensive  for  his  slender  resources. 

When  Whitney  was  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  sug- 
gested to  his  father  an  enterprise,  which  was  an  earnest  of  the 
similar  undertakings  in  which  he  engaged  on  a  far  greater 
scale  in  later  life.  This  being  the  time  of  the  Revolutionary 
war,  nails  were  in  great  demand,  and  bore  a  high  price.  At 
that  period,  nails  were  made  chiefly  by  hand,  with  little  aid 
from  machinery.  Young  Whitney  proposed  to  his  father  to 
procure  him  a  few  tools,  and  to  permit  him  to  set  up  the  man- 
ufacture. His  father  consented,  and  he  went  steadily  to  work, 
and  suffered  nothing  to  divert  him  from  his  task,  until  his  day's 
work  was  completed.  By  extraordinary  diligence,  he  gained 
time  to  make  tools  for  his  own  use,  and  to  put  in  knife  blades, 
and  to  perform  many  other  curious  little  jobs,  which  exceeded 
the  skill  of  the  country  artisans.  At  this  laborious  occupa- 
tion, the  enterprising  boy  wrought  alone,  with  great  success, 
and  with  much  profit  to  his  father,  for  two  winters,  pursuing 
the  ordinary  labors  of  the  farm  during  the  summers.  At  this 
time  he  devised  a  plan  for  enlarging  his  business  and  increas- 
ing his  profits.  He  whispered  his  scheme  to  his  sister,  with 
strong  injunctions  of  secrecy :  and  requesting  leave  of  his  fa- 
ther to  go  to  a  neighboring  town,  without  specifying  his  object, 
he  set  out  on  horseback  in  quest  of  a  fellow  laborer.  Not  find- 
ing one  so  easily  as  he  had  anticipated,  he  proceeded  from 
town  to  town,  with  a  perseverance  which  was  always  a  strong 
trait  of  his  character,  until  at  the  distance  of  forty  miles  from 
home,  he  found  such  a  workman  as  he  desired.  He  also  made 


his  journey  subservient  to  his  improvement  in  mechanical 
skill,  for  he  called  at  every  workshop  on  his  way,  and  gleaned 
all  the  information  he  could  respecting  the  mechanic  arts. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  the  business  of  making  nails  was 
no  longer  profitable ;  but  a  fashion  prevailing  among  the  la- 
dies of  fastening  on  their  bonnets  with  long  pins,  he  contrived 
to  make  those  with  such  skill  and  dexterity,  that  he  nearly  mo- 
nopolized the  business,  although  he  devoted  to  it  only  such 
seasons  of  leisure  as  he  could  redeem  from  the  occupations  of 
the  farm,  to  which  he  now  principally  betook  himself.  He 
added  to  this  article,  the  manufacture  of  walking  canes,  which 
he  made  with  peculiar  neatness. 

In  respect  to  his  proficiency  in  learning,  while  young,  we 
are  informed  that  he  early  manifested  a  fondness  for  figures, 
and  an  uncommon  aptitude  for  arithmetical  calculations,  though 
in  the  other  rudiments  of  education,  he  was  not  particularly 
distinguished.  Yet,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  he  had  acquired  so 
much  general  information,  as  to  be  regarded,  on  this  account, 
as  well  as  on  account  of  his  mechanical  skill,  a  very  remark- 
able boy. 

From  the  age  of  nineteen,  young  Whitney  conceived  the 
idea  of  obtaining  a  liberal  education  ;  but  being  warmly  op- 
posed by  his  step-mother,  he  was  unable  to  procure  the  decided 
consent  of  his  father,  until  he  had  reached  the  age  of  twenty 
three  years.  But,  partly  by  the  avails  of  his  manual  labor, 
and  partly  by  teaching  a  village  school,  he  had  been  so  far 
able  to  surmount  the  obstacles  thrown  in  his  way,  that  he  had 
prepared  himself  for  the  Freshman  class  in  Yale  College, 
which  he  entered  in  May,  1789.  An  intelligent  friend  and 
neighbor  of  the  family  helped  to  dissuade  his  father  from  send- 
ing him  to  college,  observing,  that  "  it  was  a  pity  such  a  fine 
mechanical  genius  as  his  should  be  wasted  ;"  but  he  was  unable 
to  comprehend  how  a  liberal  education,  by  enlarging  his  intel- 
lectual powers  and  expanding  his  genius,  would  so  much  exalt 
those  powers  and  perfect  that  genius,  as  to  place  their  pos- 
sessor among  the  Arkwrights  of  the  age,  while  without  such 
means  of  cultivation,  he  might  have  been  only  an  ingenious 
millwright  or  blacksmith.  While  a  schoolmaster,  the  me- 


10 

chanic  would  often  usurp  the  place  of  the  teacher ;  and  the 
mind,  too  aspiring  for  such  a  sphere,  was  wandering  off  in 
pursuit  of  perpetual  motion.  While  at  home  in  the  month  of 
July,  1788,  making  arrangements  to  go  to  New  Haven,  for  the 
purpose  of  entering  college,  he  was  seized  with  a  violent  fe- 
ver attended  by  a  severe  cough,  which  threatened  to  termi- 
nate his  life.  At  length  the  disease  centered  in  one  of  his 
limbs.  A  painful  swelling,  extending  to  the  bone,  ensued, 
which  was  finally  relieved  by  surgical  operation.  After  his 
recovery,  he  went  to  Durham,  in  Connecticut,  and  finished  his 
preparation  for  college,  under  the  care  of  that  eminent  scholar, 
Rev.  Dr.  Goodrich.  As  we  are  soon  to  accompany  Mr.  Whit- 
ney beyond  the  sphere  of  his  domestic  relations,  we  may  men- 
tion here,  that  he  finished  his  collegiate  education  with  little 
expense  to  his  father.  His  last  college  bills  were  indeed  paid 
by  him,  but  the  money  was  considered  as  a  loan,  and  for  it 
the  son  gave  his  note,  which  he  afterwards  duly  canceled. 
After  the  decease  of  his  father,  he  took  an  active  part  in  the 
settlement  of  the  estate,  but  generously  relinquished  all  his 
patrimony  for  the  benefit  of  the  other  members  of  the  family. 
We  have  already  mentioned  that  Mr.  Whitney  entered  Yale 
College  at  the  mature  age  of  twenty  three  years.  He  had  en- 
joyed but  little  intercourse  with  men  of  learning,  and  the  state 
of  elementary  education,  in  the  part  of  the  country  where  he 
passed  his  minority,  was  unfavorable  to  his  acquiring  a  know- 
ledge of  polite  literature ;  and  while  a  member  of  college,  he 
seems  to  have  devoted  more  attention  to  the  mathematics, 
and  especially  to  mechanics,  theoretical  as  well  as  practical, 
than  to  the  ancient  classics.  Among  his  files  are  found  most  or 
all  of  the  compositions  and  disputations  which  he  wrote  during 
this  period,  commencing  with  1789.  The  compositions  are 
frequently  characterized  by  great  vividness  of  imagination, 
and  the  disputations  by  sound  and  correct  reasoning.  At  this 
time  of  life,  indeed,  Mr.  Whitney  exhibited  an  imagination 
somewhat  poetical ;  his  prose  compositions  had  something  of 
this  vein,  and  he  occasionally  wrote  verses.  The  written  dis- 
putations found  among  his  papers,  are  more  than  twenty  in 
number.  Some  of  them  were  read  before  the  President,  (the 


11 

late  Dr.  Stiles,)  and  others  were  exhibited  in  the  literary  society 
to  which  he  belonged.  Their  titles  indicate  the  topics  that 
were  agitated  by  the  students  of  that  day.  The  subjects  dis- 
cussed were  oftener  political  than  literary.  The  writers  par- 
took largely  of  the  enthusiasm  which  pervaded  all  ranks  of 
our  countrymen.  They  exulted  in  their  release  from  a  foreign 
yoke,  and  boasted  of  the  victory  they  had  achieved  over  Brit- 
ish arms.  They  extolled  the  matchless  wisdom  of  the  new 
government,  and  contrasted  its  free  spirit  with  the  tyranny  of 
most  of  the  governments  of  the  old  world,  and  its  youthful 
vigor  with  those  mouldering  fabrics.  With  a  spirit  somewhat 
prophetical,  they  anticipated  the  decline  and  overthrow  of  all 
arbitrary  governments,  and  the  substitution  in  their  place,  of 
a  purely  representative  system,  like  our  own,  and  thus  main- 
tained, (what  is  now  even  more  probable  than  it  was  then,)  that 
this  government  was  set  up  to  be  a  model  to  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth. 

The  propensity  of  Mr.  Whitney  to  mechanical  inventions 
and  occupations,  was  frequently  apparent  during  his  residence 
at  college.  On  a  particular  occasion,  one  of  the  tutors  hap- 
pening to  mention  some  interesting  philosophical  experiment, 
regretted  that  he  could  not  exhibit  it  to  his  pupils,  because  the 
apparatus  was  out  of  order,  and  must  be  sent  abroad  to  be 
repaired.  Mr.  Whitney  proposed  to  undertake  this  task,  and 
performed  it  greatly  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Faculty  of  the 
college. 

A  carpenter  being  at  work  upon  one  of  the  buildings  of  the 
gentleman  with  whom  Mr.  Whitney  boarded,  the  latter  begged 
permission  to  use  his  tools  during  the  intervals  of  study;  but  the 
mechanic  being  a  man  of  careful  habits,  was  unwilling  to  trust 
them  with  a  student,  and  it  was  only  after  the  gentleman  of 
the  house  had  become  responsible  for  all  damages,  that  he 
would  grant  the  permission.  But  Mr.  Whitney  had  no  sooner 
commenced  his  operations,  than  the  carpenter  was  surprised 
at  his  dexterity,  and  exclaimed,  "there  was  one  good  me- 
chanic spoiled  when  you  went  to  college." 

Soon  after  Mr.  Whitney  took  his  degree,  in  the  autumn  of 
1792,  he  entered  into  an  engagement  with  a  Mr.  B.,  of  Geor- 


If. 

gia,  to  reside  in  his  family  as  a  private  teacher.  On  his  way 
thither,  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  have  the  company  of  Mrs. 
Greene,  the  widow  of  General  Greene,  who,  with  her  family, 
was  returning  to  Savannah,  after  spending  the  summer  at  the 
north.  At  that  time  it  was  deemed  unsafe  to  travel  through 
our  country  without  having  had  the  small-pox,  and  accordingly 
Mr.  W.  prepared  himself  for  the  excursion,  by  procuring  in- 
oculation while  in  New  York.  As  soon  as  he  was  sufficiently 
recovered,  the  party  set  sail  for  Savannah.  As  his  health 
was  not  fully  re-established,  Mrs.  Greene  kindly  invited  him 
to  go  with  the  family  to  her  residence  at  Mulberry  Grove,  near 
Savannah,  and  remain  until  he  was  recruited.  The  invitation 
was  accepted  ;  but  lest  he  should  not  yet  have  lost  all  power 
of  communicating  that  dreadful  disease,  Mrs.  Greene  had 
white  flags  (the  meaning  of  which  was  well  understood)  hoist- 
ed at  the  landing,  and  at  all  the  avenues  leading  to  the  house. 
As  a  requital  for  her  hospitality,  her  guest  procured  the  virus 
and  inoculated  all  the  servants  of  the  household,  more  than 
fifty  in  number,  and  carried  them  safely  through  the  disorder. 

Mr.  Whitney  had  scarcely  set  his  foot  in  Georgia,  before  he 
was  met  by  a  disappointment  which  was  an  earnest  of  that 
long  series  of  adverse  events  which,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
attended  all  his  future  negotiations  in  the  same  State.*  On  his 
arrival,  he  was  informed  that  Mr.  B.  had  employed  another 
teacher,  leaving  Whitney  entirely  without  resources  or  friends, 
except  those  whom  he  had  made  in  the  family  of  Gen.  Greene. 
In  these  benevolent  people,  however,  his  case  excited  much 
interest,  and  Mrs.  Greene  kindly  said  to  him,  my  young  friend, 
you  propose  studying  the  law ;  make  my  house  your  home, 
your  room  your  castle,  and  there  pursue  what  studies  you 
please.  He  accordingly  commenced  the  study  of  law  under 
that  hospitable  roof. 

Mrs.  Greene  was  engaged  in  a  piece  of  embroidery  in  which 


*  In  a  letter  to  his  friend,  Josiah  Stebbins,  Esq.,  (the  late  Judge  Stebbins  of  Maine,) 
dated  Geo.,  April  11,  1793,  Mr.  Whitney  says,  "  Fortune  has  stood  with  her  back 
towards  me  ever  since  I  have  been  here." — It  does  not  appear  that  so  far  as  related 
to  Georgia,  he  ever  found  her  position  reversed. 


13 

she  employed  a  peculiar  kind  of  frame  called  a  tambour.  She 
complained  that  it  was  badly  constructed,  and  that  it  tore 
the  delicate  threads  of  her  work.  Mr.  Whitney,  eager  for  an 
opportunity  to  oblige  his  hostess,  set  himself  at  work  and 
speedily  produced  a  tambour  frame  made  on  a  plan  entirely 
new,  which  he  presented  to  her.  Mrs.  Greene  and  her  family 
were  greatly  delighted  with  it,  and  thought  it  a  wonderful 
proof  of  ingenuity.* 

Not  long  afterwards,  a  large  party  of  gentlemen  came  from 
Augusta  and  the  Upper  country,  to  visit  the  family  of  Gen. 
Greene,  consisting  principally  of  officers  who  had  served  un- 
der the  General  in  the  Revolutionary  army.  Among  the 
number  were  Major  Bremen,  Major  Forsyth,  and  Major 
Pendleton.  They  fell  into  conversation  upon  the  state  of  ag- 
riculture among  them,  and  expressed  great  regret  that  there 
was  no  means  of  cleaning  the  green  seed  cotton,  or  separating 
it  from  its  seed,  since  all  the  lands  which  were  unsuitable  for 
the  cultivation  of  rice,  would  yield  large  crops  of  cotton.  But 
until  ingenuity  could  devise  some  machine  which  would  great- 
ly facilitate  the  process  of  cleaning,  it  was  in  vain  to  think  of 
raising  cotton  for  market.  Separating  one  pound  of  the  clean 
staple  from  the  seed  was  a  day's  work  for  a  woman ;  but  the 
time  usually  devoted  to  picking  cotton  was  the  evening,  after 
the  labor  of  the  field  was  over.  Then  the  slaves,  men,  women 
and  children,  were  collected  in  circles  with  one  whose  duty 
it  was  to  rouse  the  dozing  and  quicken  the  indolent.  While 
the  company  were  engaged  in  this  conversation,  "  gentlemen 
(said  Mrs.  Greene,)  apply  to  my  young  friend,  Mr.  Whitney — 
he  can  make  any  thing."  Upon  which  she  conducted  them 
into  a  neighboring  room,  and  showed  them  her  tambour  frame, 
and  a  number  of  toys  which  Mr.  W.  had  made,  or  repaired 
for  the  children.  She  then  introduced  the  gentlemen  to  Whit- 
ney himself,  extolling  his  genius  and  commending  him  to  their 


*  Several  years  afterwards,  his  partner,  Mr.  Miller,  writes  to  Mr.  Whitney,  "I 
presume  your  skill  in  mechanics  is  likely  to  give  you  employment  enough  with  the 
ladies ;  for  your  name  is  often  coupled  with  work-frames,  needles,  &c.  &c. ;  so  that 
I  apprehend  you  will  ultimately  be  compelled  to  become  ignorant  and  unskilful  in. 
these  things,  hi  your  own  defence." 


14 

notice  and  friendship.  He  modestly  disclaimed  all  pretensions 
to  mechanical  genius  ;  and  when  they  named  their  object,  he 
replied  that  he  had  never  seen  either  cotton  or  cotton  seed  in 
his  life.  Mrs.  G.  said  to  one  of  the  gentlemen,  "  I  have  ac- 
complished my  aim.  Mr.  Whitney  is  a  very  deserving  young 
man,  and  to  bring  him  into  notice  was  my  object.  The  inter- 
est which  our  friends  now  feel  for  him,  will,  I  hope,  lead  to  his 
getting  some  employment  to  enable  him  to  prosecute  the  study 
of  the  law." 

But  a  new  turn  that  no  one  of  the  company  dreamed  of, 
had  been  given  to  Mr.  Whitney's  views.  It  being  out  of  sea- 
son for  cotton  in  the  seed,  he  went  to  Savannah  and  searched 
among  the  warehouses  and  boats,  until  he  found  a  small  par- 
cel of  it.  This  he  carried  home,  and  communicated  his  in- 
tentions to  Mr.  Miller,  who  warmly  encouraged  him,  and 
assigned  him  a  room  in  the  basement  of  the  house,  where  he 
set  himself  at  work  with  such  rude  materials  and  instruments 
as  a  Georgia  plantation  afforded.  With  these  resources,  how- 
ever, he  made  tools  better  suited  to  his  purpose,  and  drew  his 
own  wire,  (of  which  the  teeth  of  the  earliest  gins  were  made,) 
an  article  which  was  not  at  that  time  to  be  found  in  the  mark- 
et of  Savannah.  Mrs.  Greene  and  Mr.  Miller  were  the  only 
persons  ever  admitted  to  his  workshop,  and  the  only  persons 
who  knew  in  what  way  he  was  employing  himself.  The 
many  hours  he  spent  in  his  mysterious  pursuits,  afforded  mat- 
ter of  great  curiosity  and  often  of  raillery  to  the  younger 
members  of  the  family.  Near  the  close  of  the  winter,  the 
machine  was  so  nearly  completed  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  its 
success. 

Mrs.  Greene  was  eager  to  communicate  to  her  numerous 
friends  the  knowledge  of  this  important  invention,  peculiarly 
important  at  that  time,  because  then  the  market  was  glutted 
with  all  those  articles  which  were  suited  to  the  climate  and 
soil  of  Georgia,  and  nothing  could  be  found  to  give  occupation 
to  the  negroes,  and  support  to  the  white  inhabitants.  This 
opened  suddenly  to  the  planters  boundless  resources  of  wealth, 
and  rendered  the  occupations  of  the  slaves  less  unhealthy  and 
laborious  than  they  had  been  before. 


15 

Mrs.  Greene,  therefore,  invited  to  her  house  gentlemen  from 
different  parts  of  the  State,  and  on  the  first  day  after  they  had 
assembled,  she  conducted  them  to  a  temporary  building,  which 
had  been  erected  for  the  machine,  and  they  saw  with  aston- 
ishment and  delight,  that  more  cotton  could  be  separated  from 
the  seed  in  one  day,  by  the  labor  of  a  single  hand,  than  could 
be  done  in  the  usual  manner  in  the  space  of  marty  months. 

Mr.  Whitney  might  now  have  indulged  in  bright  reveries  of 
fortune  and  of  fame ;  but  we  shall  have  various  opportunities 
of  seeing,  that  he  tempered  his  inventive  genius  with  an  un- 
usual share  of  the  calm,  considerate  qualities  of  the  financier. 
Although  urged  by  his  friends  to  secure  a  patent,  and  devote 
himself  to  the  manufacture  and  introduction  of  his  machines, 
he  coolly  replied,  that  on  account  of  the  great  expense  and 
trouble  which  always  attend  the  introduction  of  a  new  inven- 
tion, and  the  difficulty  of  enforcing  a  law  in  favor  of  paten- 
tees, in  opposition  to  the  individual  interests  of  so  large  a 
number  of  persons  as  would  be  concerned  in  the  culture  of 
this  article,  it  was  with  great  reluctance  that  he  should  consent 
to  relinquish  the  hopes  of  a  lucrative  profession,  for  which  he 
had  been  destined,  with  an  expectation  of  indemnity  either 
from  the  justice  or  the  gratitude  of  his  countrymen,  even  should 
the  invention  answer  the  most  sanguine  anticipations  of  his 
friends. 

The  individual  who  contributed  most  to  incite  him  to  per- 
severe in  the  undertaking,  was  Phineas  Miller,  Esq.  Mr. 
Miller  was  a  native  of  Connecticut,  and  a  graduate  of  Yale 
College.  Like  Mr.  Whitney,  soon  after  he  had  completed  his 
education  at  college,  he  came  to  Georgia  as  a  private  teacher, 
in  the  family  of  Gen.  Greene,  and  after  the  decease  of  the 
General,  he  became  the  husband  of  Mrs.  Greene.  He  had 
qualified  himself  for  the  profession  of  law,  and  was  a  gentle- 
man of  cultivated  mind  and  superior  talents  ;  but  he  was  of 
an  ardent  temperament,  and  therefore  well  fitted  to  enter  with 
zeal  into  the  views  which  the  genius  of  his  friend  had  laid 
open  to  him.  He  had  also  considerable  funds  at  command, 
and  proposed  to  Mr.  Whitney  to  become  his  joint  adventurer, 
and  to  be  at  the  whole  expense  of  maturing  the  invention  until 


16 

it  should  be  patented.  If  the  machine  should  succeed  in  its 
intended  operation,  the  parties  agreed,  under  legal  formalities, 
"  that  the  profits  and  advantages  arising  therefrom,  as  well  as 
all  privileges  and  emoluments  to  be  derived  from  patenting, 
making,  vending,  and  working  the  same,  should  be  mutually 
and  equally  shared  between  them."  This  instrument  bears 
date  May  2%,  1793,  and  immediately  afterwards  they  commen- 
ced business,  under  the  firm  of  Miller  fy  Whitney. 

An  invention  so  important  to  the  agricultural  interest,  (and, 
as  has  proved,  to  every  department  of  human  industry,)  could 
not  long  remain  a  secret.  The  knowledge  of  it  soon  spread 
through  the  State,  and  so  great  was  the  excitement  on  the 
subject,  that  multitudes  of  persons  came  from  all  quarters  of  the 
State  to  see  the  machine  ;  but  it  was  not  deemed  safe  to  grat- 
ify their  curiosity  until  the  pateixt-right  had  been  secured. 
But  so  determined  were  some  of  the  populace  to  possess  this 
treasure,  that  neither  law  nor  justice  could  restrain  them — they 
broke  open  the  building  by  night  and  carried  off  the  machine. 
In  this  way  the  public  became  possessed  of  the  invention  ;  and 
before  Mr.  Whitney  could  complete  his  model  and  secure  his 
patent,  a  number  of  machines  were  in  successful  operation, 
constructed  with  some  slight  deviation  from  the  original,  with 
the  hope  of  evading  the  penalty  for  violating  the  patent-right. 

As  soon  as  the  copartnership  of  Miller  &  Whitney  was 
formed,  Mr.  Whitney  repaired  to  Connecticut,  where,  as  far  as 
possible,  he  was  to  perfect  the  machine,  obtain  a  patent,  and 
manufacture  and  ship  for  Georgia  such  a  number  of  machines 
as  would  supply  the  demand. 

Within  three  days  after  the  conclusion  of  the  copartnership, 
Mr.  Whitney  having  set  out  for  the  north,  Mr.  Miller  com- 
menced his  long  correspondence  relative  to  the  Cotton  Gin.* 
The  first  letter  announces  that  encroachments  upon  their  rights 
had  already  commenced.  "  It  will  be  necessary  (says  Mr. 
Miller)  to  have  a  considerable  number  of  gins  made,  to  be  in 
readiness  to  send  out  as  soon  as  the  patent  is  obtained,  in  or- 
der to  satisfy  the  absolute  demand,  and  make  people's  heads 

*  This  name  was  not  applied  by  the  inventor,  but  became  such  by  popular  use. 


17 

easy  on  the  subject ;  for  I  am  informed  of  two  other  claimants 
for  the  honor  of  the  invention  of  cotton  gins,  in  addition  to 
those  we  knew  before." 

On  the  20th  of  June,  1793,  Mr.  Whitney  presented  his  pe- 
tition for  a  patent  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  then  Secretary  of  State  ; 
but  the  prevalence  of  the  yellow  fever  in  Philadelphia,  (which 
was  then  the  seat  of  government,)  prevented  his  concluding 
the  business  relative  to  the  patent,  until  several  months  after- 
wards. To  prevent  being  anticipated,  he  took  however  the 
precaution  to  make  oath  to  the  invention  before  the  Notary 
Public  of  the  city  of  New  Haven,  which  he  did  on  the  28th 
of  October,  of  the  same  year. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  who  had  much  curiosity  in  regard  to  mechan- 
ical inventions,  took  a  peculiar  interest  in  this  machine,  and 
addressed  to  the  inventor  an  obliging  letter,  desiring  farther 
particulars  respecting  it,  and  expressing  a  wish  to  procure  one 
for  his  own  use.  Mr.  Whitney  accordingly  sketched  the  his- 
tory of  the  invention,  and  of  the  construction  and  perform- 
ances of  the  machine.  "  It  is  about  a  year  (says  he)  since*  I 
~first  turned  my  attention  to  constructing  this  machine,  at  which 
time  I  was  in  the  State  of  Georgia.  Within  about  ten  days 
after  my  first  conception  of  the  plan,  I  made  a  small,  though 
imperfect  model.  Experiments  with  this  encquraged  me  to 
make  one  on  a  larger  scale  ;  but  the  extreme  difficulty  of  pro- 
curing workmen  and  proper  materials  in  Georgia,  prevented 
my  completing  the  larger  one  until  some  time  in  April  last. 
This,  though  much  larger  than  my  first  attempt,  is  not  above 
one  third  as  large  as  the  machines  may  be  made  with  conven- 
ience. The  cylinder  is  only  two  feet  two  inches  in  length, 
and  six  inches  diameter.  It  is  turned  by  hand,  and  requires 
the  strength  of  one  man  to  keep  it  in  constant  motion.  It  is 
the  stated  task  of  one  negro  to  clean  fifty  weight,  (I  mean  fifty 
pounds  after  it  is  separated  from  the  seed,)  of  the  green  seed 
cotton  per  day." — In  the  same  letter  Mr.  J  efferson  assured  Mr. 
Whitney,  that  a  patent  would  be  granted  as  soon  as  the  model 
was  lodged  in  the  Patent  Office.  In  mentioning  the  favorable 

*  This  letter  is  dated  Nov.  24, 1793. 


18 

notice  of  Mr.  Jefferson  to  his  friend  Stebbins,  he  adds,  with 
characteristic  moderation,  I  hope,  by  perseverance,  I  shall  make 
something  of  it  yet. 

At  the  close  of  this  year,  (1793,)  Mr.  Whitney  was  to  return 
to  Georgia  with  his  cotton  gins,  and  Mr.  Miller  had  made  ar- 
rangements for  commencing  business  immediately  after  his  ar- 
rival. The  plan  was  to  erect  machines  in  every  part  of  the 
cotton  district,  and  engross  the  entire  business  themselves. 
This  was  evidently  an  unfortunate  scheme.  It  rendered  the 
business  very  extensive  and  complicated,  and  as  it  did  not  at 
once  supply  the  demands  of  the  cotton  growers,  it  multiplied 
the  inducements  to  make  the  machines  in  violation  of  the 
patent.  Had  the  proprietors  confined  their  views  to  the  manu- 
facture of  the  machines,  and  to  the  sale  of  patent  rights,  it  is 
probable  they  would  have  avoided  some  of  the  difficulties  with 
which  they  afterwards  had  to  contend.  The  prospect  of 
making  suddenly  an  immense  fortune  by  the  business  of  gin- 
ning, where  every  third  pound  of  cotton  (worth  at  that  time 
from  twenty  five  to  thirty  three  cents)  was  their  own,  pre- 
sented great  and  peculiar  attractions.  Mr.  Whitney's  return 
to  Georgia  was  delayed  until  the  following  April.  The  im- 
portunity of  Mr.  Miller's  letters,  written  during  the  preceding 
period,  urgingjiim  to  come  on,  evinces  how  eager  the  Geor- 
gia planters  were  to  enter  the  new  field  of  enterprise,  which 
the  genius  of  Whitney  had  laid  open  to  them.  Nor  did  they, 
at  first,  in  general,  contemplate  availing  themselves  of  the  in- 
vention unlawfully.  But  the  minds  of  the  more  honorable 
class  of  planters  were  afterwards  deluded  by  various  artifices, 
set  on  foot  by  designing  men,  with  the  view  of  robbing  Mr. 
Whitney  of  his  just  right.  To  these  we  shall  advert  more  par- 
ticularly hereafter. 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  experienced  by  men  of  enter- 
prise, at  the  period  under  review,  was  the  extreme  scarcity  of 
money.  In  order  to  carry  on  the  manufacture  of  cotton  gins, 
and  to  make  advances  in  the  purchase  of  cotton,  and  establish- 
ments for  ginning,  to  an  extent  in  any  degree  proportioned  to 
their  wishes,  Miller  &  Whitney  required  a  much  greater  cap- 
ital than  they  could  command ;  and  the  sanguine  temperament 


19 

of  Mr.  Miller  was  constantly  prompting  him  to  advance  in 
hazards,  much  farther  than  the  more  cautious  spirit  of  Mr. 
Whitney  would  follow.  But  even  the  latter  found  it  necessary 
sometimes  to  borrow  money  at  an  enormous  interest.  The  first 
loan  (for  two  thousand  dollars)  was  made  on  terms  which  were 
deemed  at  that  time  peculiarly  favorable ;  yet  the  company 
were  to  pay  five  per  cent,  premium  in  addition  to  the  lawful 
interest.  This  was  in  1794.  In  consequence  of  the  numer- 
ous speculations  in  new  lands  into  which  so  many  of  our  coun- 
trymen were  deluded,  and  the  wantpf  confidence  created  by 
the  very  application  for  a  loan,  the  pressure  for  money  was 
continually  increasing.  In  1796,  Mr.  Whitney  applied  to  a 
friend  in  Boston  to  raise  money  for  him  on  a  loan,  and  received 
the  following  reply:  "  I  applied  to  one  of  those  vultures  called 
brokers,  who  are  preying  on  the  purse-strings  of  the  industri- 
ous, and  was  informed  that  he  can  procure  the  sum  you  wish 
at  a  premium  of  twenty  per  cent,  on  the  following  conditions, 
viz :  You  must  make  over  and  deposit  with  him  public  secu- 
rities, such  as  funded  stock,  bank  stock,  or  any  kind  of  State 
notes,  or  Connecticut  reservation  land  certificates,  sufficient,  at 
the  going  prices,  fully  to  secure  the  debt  and  premium."  In  a 
more  embarrassed  state  of  Mr.  Miller's  private  affairs,  several 
years  afterwards,  he  paid  the  enormous  interest  of  five,  six, 
and  even  seven  per  cent,  per  month. 

We  have  said  that  the  loan  contracted  by  Mr.  Whitney,  in 
1794,  at  a  premium  of  five  per  cent,  in  addition  to  the  lawful 
interest,  was  regarded  as  peculiarly  favorable  ;  this  is  evident 
from  the  fact  that,  during  the  same  year,  Mr.  Miller  urges  him 
to  contract  a  new  loan,  if  possible,  for  three  thousand  dollars, 
at  twelve  or  fourteen  per  cent,  provided  it  could  be  extended 
over  a  year. 

In  July,  1794,  Mr.  Whitney  was  confined  by  a  severe  ill- 
ness, from  which  he  recovered  slowly;  but  his  business  re- 
ceived a  still  farther  interruption  from  a  very  fatal  sickness,  (the 
scarlet  fever,)  which  prevailed  in  New  Haven  during  this  year, 
and  which  attacked  a  number  of  his  workmen. 

Under  all  these  discouragements,  Mr.  Miller  was  constantly 
writing  the  most  urgent  letters  from  Georgia,  to  press  forward 


20 

the  manufacture  of  machines.  "  Do  not  let  a  deficiency  of 
money,  do  not  let  any  thing  (says  Mr.  Miller)  hinder  the  speedy 
construction  of  the  gins.  The  people  of  the  country  are  al- 
most running  mad  for  them,  and  much  can  be  said  to  justify 
their  importunity.  When  the  present  crop  is  harvested,  there 
will  be  a  real  property  of  at  least  fifty  thousand,  yes,  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  lying  useless,  unless  we  can  enable  the 
holders  to  bring  it  to  market.  Pray  remember  that  we  must 
have  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  gins  between  this  and  another 
fall,*  if  there  are  any  workmen  in  New  England,  or  in  the 
Middle  States,  to  make  them.  In  two  years  we  will  begin  to 
take  long  steps  up  hill,  in  the  business  of  patent  ginning,  for- 
tune favoring." 

The  general  resort  of  the  planters  to  the  cultivation  of  cot- 
ton, and  its  consequent  production  in  vast  quantities,  the  value 
of  which  depended  entirely  upon  the  chance  of  getting  it  clean- 
ed by  the  gin,  created  great  uneasiness,  which  first  displayed 
itself  in  this  pressure  upon  Miller  &  Whitney,  and  afterwards 
afforded  great  encouragement  to  the  marauders  upon  the  pa- 
tent-right, who  were  now  becoming  numerous  and  audacious. 

The  roller  gin  was  at  first  the  most  formidable  competitor 
with  Whitney's  Machine.  It  extricated  the  seeds  by  means  of 
rollers,  crushing  them  between  revolving  cylinders,  instead  of 
disengaging  them  by  means  of  teeth.  The  fragments  of  seeds 
which  remained  in  the  cotton,  rendered  its  execution  much  in- 
ferior in  this  respect  to  Whitney's  gin,  and  it  was  also  much 
slower  in  its  operation.  Great  efforts  were  made,  however,  to 
create  an  impression  in  favor  of  its  superiority  in  other  re- 
spects, to  which  we  shall  advert  by  and  by. 

But  a  still  more  formidable  rival  appeared  early  in  the  year 
1795,  under  the  name  of  the  Saw  Gin.  It  was  Whitney's  gin, 
except  that  the  teeth  were  cut  in  circular  rims  of  iron,  instead 
of  being  made  of  wires,  as  was  the  case  in  the  earlier  forms 
of  the  patent  gin.  The  idea  of  such  teeth  had  early  occurred 
to  Mr.  Whitney,  as  he  afterwards  established  by  legal  proof. 
But  they  would  have  been  of  no  use  except  in  connection  with 
the  other  parts  of  his  machine ;  and,  therefore,  this  was  a  pal- 

*  This  letter  is  dated  Oct.  26,  1794. 


21 

pable  attempt  to  evade  the  patent-right,  and  it  was  principally 
in  reference  to  this,  that  the  lawsuits  were  afterwards  held. 

In  March,  1795,  in  the  midst  of  these  perplexities  and  dis- 
couragements, Mr.  Whitney  went  to  New  York,  on  business, 
and  was  detained  there  three  weeks,  by  an  attack  of  fever  and 
ague,  the  seeds  of  which  had  been  sown  the  previous  season 
in  Georgia.  As  soon  as  he  was  able  to  leave  the  house,  he 
embarked  on  board  a  packet  for  New  Haven.  On  his  arrival 
at  this  place,  he  was  suffering  under  one  of  those  chills  which 
precede  the  fever.  As  was  usual,  on  the  arrival  of  the  packet, 
people  came  on  board  to  welcome  their  friends,  and  to  ex- 
change salutations,  when  Mr.  Whitney  was  informed  that  on 
the  preceding  day  his  shop,  with  all  his  machines  and  papers, 
had  been  consumed  by  fire  !  Thus,  suddenly,  was  he  reduced 
to  absolute  bankruptcy,  having  debts  to  the  amount  of  four 
thousand  dollars,  without  any  means  of  making  payment. 
Mr.  Whitney,  however,  had  not  a  spirit  to  despond  under  dif- 
ficulties and  disappointments,  but  was  aroused  by  them  to  still 
more  vigorous  efforts. 

Mr.  Miller,  also,  on  hearing  of  this  catastrophe,  manifested 
a  kindred  spirit.  The  letters  written  by  Mr.  Whitney  on  the 
occasion,  we  have  not  been  able  to  obtain ;  but  the  reply  of 
Mr.  Miller  indicates  what  were  the  feelings  of  both  parties. 
It.  may  be  of  service  to  enterprising  young  men,  who  meet 
with  misfortunes,  to  read  an  extract  or  two. 

"  I  think  with  you,  (says  Mr.  M,,)  that  we  ought  to  meet  such 
events  with  equanimity.  We  have  been  pursuing  a  valuable 
object  by  honorable  means ;  and  I  trust  that  all  our  measures 
have  been  such  as  reason  and  virtue  must  justify.  It  has 
pleased  Providence  to  postpone  the  attainment  of  this  object. 
In  the  midst  of  the  reflections  which  your  story  has  suggested, 
and  with  feelings  keenly  awake  to  the  heavy,  the  extensive 
injury  we  have  sustained,  I  feel  a  secret  joy  and  satisfaction, 
that  you  possess  a  mind  in  this  respect  similar  to  my  own — 
that  you  are  not  disheartened — that  you  do  not  relinquish  the 
pursuit — and  that  you  will  persevere,  and  endeavor  at  all 
events  to  attain  the  main  object.  This  is  exactly  consonant 
to  my  own  determinations.  I  will  devote  all  my  time,  all  my 


22 

thoughts,  all  my  exertions,  and  all  the  money  I  can  earn  or 
borrow,  to  encompass  and  complete  the  business  we  have  un- 
dertaken ;  and  if  fortune  should,  by  any  future  disaster,  deny 
us  the  boon  we  ask,  we  will  at  least  deserve  it.  It  shall  never 
be  said  that  we  have  lost  an  object  which  a  little  perseverance 
could  have  attained.  I  think,  indeed,  it  will  be  very  extraor- 
dinary, if  two  young  men,  in  the  prime  of  life,  with  some  share 
of  ingenuity,  with  a  little  knowledge  of  the  world,  a  great  deal 
of  industry,  and  a  considerable  command  of  property,  should 
not  be  able  to  sustain  such  a  stroke  of  misfortune  as  this,  heavy 
as  it  is." 

After  this  disaster  the  company  began  to  feel  much  straight- 
ened for  want  of  funds.  Mr.  Miller  expresses  a  confidence 
that  they  should  be  able  to  raise  money  in  some  way  or  other, 
though  he  knows  not  how.  He  recommends  to  Mr.  Whitney 
to  proceed  forthwith  to  erect  a  new  shop,  and  to  recommence 
his  business ;  and  requests  him  to  tell  the  people  of  New  Ha- 
ven, who  might  be  disposed  to  render  them  any  service,  that 
they  required  nothing  but  a  little  time  to  get  their  machinery 
in  motion,  before  they  could  make  payment,  and  that  the  loan 
of  money  at  twelve  per  cent,  per  annum  would  be  as  great  a 
favor  as  they  could  ask.  But,  he  adds,  "  in  doing  this,  use 
great  care  to  avoid  giving  an  idea  that  we  are  in  a  desperate 
situation,  to  induce  us  to  borrow  money.  To  people  who  are 
deficient  in  understanding,  this  precaution  will  be  extremely 
necessary ;  men  of  sense  can  easily  distinguish  between  the 
prospect  of  large  gains  and  the  approaches  to  bankruptcy. 
Such  is  the  disposition  of  man,  (he  observes  on  another  occa- 
sion,) that  while  we  keep  afloat,  there  will  not  be  wanting 
those  who  will  appear  willing  to  assist  us ;  but  let  us  once  be 
given  over,  and  they  will  immediately  desert  us." 

While  struggling  with  these  multiplied  misfortunes,  intelli- 
gence was  received  from  England,  which  threatened  to  give 
a  final  blow  to  all  their  hopes.  It  was,  that  the  English  manu- 
facturers condemned  the  cotton  cleaned  by  their  machines, 
on  the  ground  that  the  staple  was  greatly  injured.  On  the 
receipt  of  this  intelligence,  Mr.  Miller  writes  as  follows : 
"  This  stroke  of  misfortune  is  much  heavier  than  that  of 


23 

the  fire,  unless  the  impression  is  immediately  removed.  For, 
with  that  which  now  governs  the  public  mind  on  this  sub- 
ject, our  patent  would  be  worth  extremely  little.  Every  one 
is  afraid  of  the  cotton.  Not  a  purchaser  in  Savannah  will 
pay  full  price  for  it.  Even  the  merchants  with  whom  I  have 
made  a  contract  for  purchasing,  begin  to  part  with  their  money 
reluctantly.  The  trespassers  on  our  right  only  laugh  at  our 
suits,  and  several  of  the  most  active  men  are  now  putting  up 
the  roller  gins  ;  and,  what  is  to  the  last  degree  vexing,  many 
prefer  their  cotton  to  ours." 

At  this  time,  (1796,)  Miller  &  Whitney  had  thirty  gins,  at 
eight  different  places  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  some  of  which 
were  carried  by  horses  or  oxen,  and  some  by  water.  A  num- 
ber of  these  were  standing  still  for  want  of  the  means  of  sup- 
plying them.  The  company  had  also  invested  about  810,000 
in  real  estate,  which  was  suited  only  to  the  purposes  of  gin- 
ning cotton.  All  things  now  conspired  to  threaten  them  with 
deep  insolvency.  Under  date  of  April  27th,  Mr.  Miller  writes 
thus :  "  A  few  moments  only  are  allowed  me  to  tell  you,  that 
the  industry  of  our  opponents  is  daily  increasing,  and  that  pre- 
judices appear  to  be  rapidly  extending  themselves  in  London 
against  our  cotton.  Hasten  to  London,  if  you  return  imme- 
diately— our  fortune,  our  fate  depends  on  it.  The  process  of 
patent  ginning  is  now  quite  at  a  stand.  I  hear  nothing  of  it, 
except  the  condolence  of  a  few  real  friends,  who  express  their 
regret  that  so  promising  an  invention  has  entirely  failed." 

Through  nearly  the  whole  of  the  year  1796,  Mr.  Whitney 
was  on  the  eve  of  departing  for  England,  whither  he  was  go- 
ing with  the  view  of  learning  the  certainty  of  the  prejudices, 
which  were  so  currently  reported  to  be  entertained  by  the 
English  manufacturers  against  the  cotton  cleaned  by  the  patent 
gin,  and  the  fame  of  which  was  so  industriously  circulated 
throughout  the  southern  papers ;  and  should  he  find  these  pre- 
judices to  exist,  firmly  believing,  as  the  event  has  shown,  that 
they  were  utterly  unfounded,  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  remove 
them  by  challenging  the  most  rigorous  trials.  He  had  several 
times  fixed  on  the  day  of  his  departure,  and  on  one  occasion 
had  actually  engaged  his  passage  and  taken  leave  of  some  of 


24 

his  friends.  But  he  was  in  each  case  thwarted  by  an  unex- 
pected disappointment  in  regard  to  the  funds  necessary  to  de- 
fray the  expenses  of  the  journey. 

Mr.  Whitney  had  counted  on  obtaining  one  thousand  dollars 
for  this -purpose,  through  the  aid  of  Mr.  John  C.  Nightingale, 
who,  having  married  a  daughter  of  Mrs.  Miller,  had  become 
interested  in  their  concerns.  Mr.  Nightingale  had  inherited  a 
considerable  fortune,  but  had  become  greatly  embarrassed  by 
speculations  in  the  Yazoo  lands.  He  had,  however,  some 
credit  left,  while  neither  Miller  nor  Whitney,  nor  both  together, 
had  credit  enough  to  borrow  a  thousand  dollars.  The  plan 
was,  therefore,  for  Nightingale  to  borrow  the  money  and  lend 
it  to  them  ;  and  Miller  urges  this,  even  at  the  rate  of  thirty 
per  cent,  per  annum.  After  various  ineffectual  trials,  Night- 
ingale abandoned  all  hope  of  affording  the  promised  succor, 
and  thus  Whitney  was  compelled  to  forego  the  great  advan- 
tages he  confidently  anticipated  from  the  voyage  to  England. 

We  regret  that  we  have  not  been  able  to  obtain  the  letters 
written  at  this  period  by  Mr.  Whitney  to  his  partner,  but  the 
nature  of  their  contents  will  be  easily  gathered  from  those  of 
Mr.  Miller. 

In  March,  1797,  Mr.  Miller  says,  "Unless  Nightingale  should 
have  the  power  to  assist  you  with  some  supplies,  which  your 
letter  furnishes  little  ground  to  hope,  I  foresee  that  our  money 
engagements  cannot  be  complied  with  ;  and  we  can  only  re- 
gret as  a  misfortune  what  we  cannot  remedy.  In  the  event 
of  this  failure,  I  can  only  take  to  myself  the  one  half  of  the 
blame  which  may  attach  itself  to  our  misplaced  confidence  in 
the  public  opinion.  I  confess  myself  to  have  been  entirely 
deceived  in  supposing  that  an  egregious  error,  and  a  general 
deception  with  regard  to  the  quality  of  our  cotton,  could  not 
long  continue  to  influence  the  whole  of  the  manufacturing,  the 
mercantile,  and  the  planting  interests,  against  us.  But  the 
reverse  of  this  fact,  allowing  the  staple  of  our  cotton  to  be 
uninjured,  has  to  our  sorrow  proved  true,  and  I  have  long 
apprehended  that  our  ruin  would  be  the  inevitable  conse- 
quence. 

"  I  am  now  devoting  my  time  and  attention  to  prepare,  in 


25 

the  best  manner  in  my  power,  the  suits  which  are  to  be  tried 
in  April ;  and  am  determined  that  all  the  dark  clouds  of  ad- 
versity, which  at  present  overshadow  our  affairs,  shall  not 
abate  my  ardor  in  laboring  to  burst  through  them,  in  order 
to  reach  the  dawn  of  prosperity,  that  has  so  long  been  with- 
held from  our  view." 

Notwithstanding  the  disastrous  condition  of  the  affairs  of 
Miller  &  Whitney,  Mr.  Nightingale,  who  was  of  an  adven- 
turous spirit,  having  partially  extricated  himself  from  his  own 
embarrassments,  was  ready  to  purchase  a  part  of  their  con- 
cern, and  offered  upon  certain  conditions  to  advance  five  thou- 
sand dollars  to  the  company. 

We  have  before  us  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Whitney,  dated 
Oct.  7th,  1797,  from  which  it  will  be  seen  what  was  the  state 
of  his  affairs  and  of  his  feelings  at  this  period.  "  The  extreme 
embarrassments  (says  he)  which  have  been  for  a  long  time  ac- 
cumulating upon  me,  are  now  become  so  great,  that  it  will  be 
impossible  for  me  to  struggle  against  them  many  days  longer. 
It  has  required  my  utmost  exertions  to  exist,  without  making 
the  least  progress  in  our  business.  I  have  labored  hard  against 
the  strong  current  of  disappointment,  which  has  been  threat- 
ening to  carry  us  down  the  cataract,  but  I  have  labored  with 
a  shattered  oar  and  struggled  in  vain,  unless  some  speedy 
relief  is  obtained.  I  am  now  quite  far  enough  advanced  in 
life  to  think  seriously  of  marrying.  I  have  ever  looked  for- 
ward with  pleasure  to  an  alliance  with  an  amiable  and  virtuous 
companion,  as  a  source  from  whence  I  have  expected  one  day 
to  derive  the  greatest  happiness.  But  the  accomplishment  of 
.  my  tour  to  Europe,  and  the  acquisition  of  something  which  I 
can  call  my  own,  appears  to  be  absolutely  necessary,  before  it 
will  be  admissable  for  me  even  to  think  of  family  engagements. 
Probably  a  year  and  a  half,  at  least,  will  be  required  to  per- 
form that  tour,  after  it  is  entered  upon.  Life  is  but  short  at 
best,  and  six  or  seven  years  out  of  the  midst  of  it,  is,  to  him 
who  makes  it,  an  immense  sacrifice.  My  most  unremitted 
attention  has  been  devoted  to  our  business.  I  have  sacrificed 
to  it  other  objects  from  which,  before  this  time,  I  might  cer- 
tainly have  gained  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  dollars.  My 


26 

whole  prospects  have  been  embarked  in  it,  with  the  expectation 
that  I  should,  before  this  time,  have  realized  something  from  it." 

These  observations  are  made  with  reference  to  a  proposi- 
tion which  he  had  brought  forward,  to  be  allowed  to  retain 
a  certain  portion  of  the  proceeds  of  the  receipts  from  Mr. 
Nightingale  as  his  private  property ;  or,  at  least,  to  be  per- 
mitted to  adopt  such  arrangements  as  would  secure  it  to  him 
after  a  limited  period.  But  the  involved  state  of  the  company 
concerns  was  such  that  Mr.  Miller  would  not  consent  to  such 
an  arrangement,  nor  does  it  appear  to  have  ever  been  made. 
However,  brighter  prospects  seemed  now  to  be  opening  upon 
them,  from  the  more  favorable  reports  that  were  made  re- 
specting the  quality  of  their  cotton.  Respectable  manufac- 
turers, both  at  home  and  abroad,  gave  favorable  certificates, 
and  retailing  merchants  sought  for  the  cotton  cleaned  by 
Whitney's  gin,  because  it  was  greatly  preferred  by  their  cus- 
tomers to  any  other  in  the  market.  This  favorable  turn  in 
public  opinion,  would  have  restored  prosperity  to  the  com- 
pany, had  not  the  encroachments  on  the  patent-right  become 
so  extensive  as  almost  to  annihilate  its  value. 

The  issue  of  the  first  trial  they  were  able  to  obtain,  is  an- 
nounced in  the  following  letter  from  Mr.  Miller,  dated  May 
11,  1797. 

"  The  event  of  the  first  patent  suit,  after  all  our  exertions 
made  in  such  a  variety  of  ways,  has  gone  against  us.  The 
preposterous  custom  of  trying  civil  causes  of  this  intricacy 
and  magnitude,  by  a  common  jury,  together  with  the  imper- 
fection of  the  patent  law,  frustrated  all  our  views,  and  disap- 
pointed expectations,  which  had  become  very  sanguine.  The 
tide  of  popular  opinion  was  running  in  our  favor,  the  Judge 
was  well  disposed  towards  us,  and  many  decided  friends  were 
with  us,  who  adhered  firmly  to  our  cause  and  interests.  The 
Judge  gave  a  charge  to  the  jury  pointedly  in  our  favor  ;  after 
which  the  defendant  himself  told  an  acquaintance  of  his,  that 
he  would  give  two  thousand  dollars  to  be  free  from  the  ver- 
dict ;  and  yet  the  jury  gave  it  against  us  after  a  consultation 
of  about  an  hour.  And  having  made  the  verdict  general,  no 
appeal  would  lie. 


27 

"  On  Monday  morning,  when  the  verdict  was  rendered,  we 
applied  for  a  new  trial ;  but  the  Judge  refused  it  to  us  on  the 
ground  that  the  jury  might  have  made  up  their  opinion  on 
the  defect  of  the  law,  which  makes  an  aggression  consist  of 
making,  devising,  and  using,  or  selling :  whereas  we  could 
only  charge  the  defendant  with  using. 

"  Thus  after  four  years  of  assiduous  labor,  fatigue  and  diffi- 
culty, are  we  again  set  afloat  by  a  new  and  most  unexpected 
obstacle.  Our  hopes  of  success  are  now  removed  to  a  period 
still  more  distant  than  before,  while  our  expenses  are  realized 
beyond  all  controversy." 

Great  efforts  were  made  to  obtain  a  trial  in  a  second  suit, 
at  the  session  of  the  court  in  Savannah,  in  May,  1798.  A 
great  number  of  witnesses  were  collected  from  various  parts 
of  the  country,  to  the  distance  of  a  hundred  miles  from  Sa- 
vannah, when,  behold,  no  Judge  appeared,  and  of  course  no 
court  was  held.  In  consequence  of  the  failure  of  the  first  suit, 
and  so  great  a  procrastination  of  the  second,  the  encroach- 
ments on  the  patent-right  had  been  prodigiously  multiplied,  so 
as  almost  entirely  to  destroy  the  business  of  the  patentees. 

In  April,  1799,  Mr.  Miller  writes  as  follows.  "  The  pros- 
pect of  making  any  thing  by  ginning  in  this  State,  is  at  an  end. 
Surreptitious  gins  are  erected  in  every  part  of  the  country ; 
and  the  jurymen  at  Augusta  have  come  to  an  understanding 
among  themselves,  that  they  will  never  give  a  verdict  in  our 
favor,  let  the  merits  of  the  case  be  as  they  may." 

The  company  would  now  have  gladly  relinquished  the  plan 
of  working  their  own  machines,  and  confined  their  operations 
to  the  sale  of  patent-rights  ;  but  few  would  buy  a  patent-right 
which  they  could  use  with  impunity  without  purchasing,  and 
those  few,  hardly  in  a  single  instance,  paid  cash,  but  gave  their 
notes,  which  they  afterwards  to  a  great  extent  avoided  paying, 
either  by  obtaining  a  verdict  from  the  juries  declaring  them 
void,  or  by  contriving  to  postpone  the  collection  until  they 
were  barred  by  the  statute  of  limitations,  a  period  of  only 
four  years.  When  thus  barred,  the  agent  of  Miller  &  Whit- 
ney, who  was  dispatched  on  a  collecting  tour  through  the 
State  of  Georgia,  informed  them,  that  such  obstacles  were 


28 

thrown  in  his  way  from  one  or  the  other  of  the  foregoing 
causes,  he  was  unable  to  collect  money  enough  from  all  these 
claims  to  bear  his  expenses,  but  was  compelled  to  draw  for 
nearly  the  whole  amount  of  these  upon  his  employers. 

The  agent  here  referred  to  was  Russel  Goodrich,  Esq.,  who 
had  engaged  in  the  service  of  Miller  &  Whitney,  as  early  as 
the  year  1798.  He  was  educated  at  Yale  College,  in  the  same 
class  with  Mr.  Miller,  and  was  for  many  years  an  able  and 
zealous  agent  in  the  affairs,  first  of  the  company,  and  after  the 
decease  of  Mr.  Miller,  of  Mr.  Whitney. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  Mr.  Whitney,  dated  Georgia,  Sep- 
tember 3d,  1801,  Mr.  Goodrich  writes  thus  :  "I  have  spent  a 
part  of  this  summer  in  South  Carolina,  upon  the  business  of 
Miller  &  Whitney.  Many  of  the  planters  of  that  region  ex- 
pressed an  opinion,  that  if  an  application  were  made  to  their 
legislature  by  the  citizens  to  purchase  the  right  of  the  paten- 
tees for  that  State,  there  was  no  doubt  that  it  would  be  done 
to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties.  Accordingly,  they  had  peti- 
tions circulated  among  the  people,  which  appeared  to  be  gen- 
erally approved  of,  and  were  very  generally  signed."  Mr. 
Goodrich  further  urges  the  importance  of  Mr. 'Whitney's  com- 
ing on  to  South  Carolina,  to  attend  at  the  approaching  session 
of  the  legislature,  in  order  to  make  the  proposed  contract. 

Accordingly,  Mr.  Whitney  repaired  to  Columbia,  taking  the 
city  of  Washington  in  his  way,  where  he  was  furnished  with 
very  obliging  letters  from  President  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madi- 
son, then  Secretary  of  State,  testimonials  which  no  doubt 
were  of  great  service  to  him  in  his  subsequent  negotiations. 
Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  session  of  the  legislature,  in  the 
month  of  Dec.,  1801,  the  business  was  regularly  brought  before 
the  legislature,  and  a  joint  committee  of  both  Houses  appointed 
to  treat  with  the  patentees.  To  this  committee  Messrs.  Miller 
&  Whitney  submitted  the  following  proposals  : — 

"  To  the  Joint  Committee  of  both  Houses  of  the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina. 

"  GENTLEMEN, 

"  The  subscribers,  in  estimating  the  value  of  their  property 
in  the  Patent  Machine  for  cleaning  cotton,  commonly  called  the 
Saw  Gin,  are  influenced  by  the  following  considerations,  viz  : 


29 

"  That  no  right  of  property  is  so  well  founded  in  nature,  as 
that  of  one's  own  invention  ;  that  their  fellow  citizens  by  their 
representatives  in  the  national  Government,  from  considera- 
tions both  of  policy  and  justice,  have  declared  that  individuals 
who  will  use  their  exertions  to  acquire  this  species  of  prop- 
erty, shall  enjoy  an  exclusive  right  in  the  same  for  fourteen 
years ;  that  influenced  by,  and  relying  on,  these  declarations 
of  their  country,  they  have  spent  a  number  of  years,  and  ex- 
hausted their  funds,  in  inventing  and  bringing  into  use,  their 
Saw  Gin  ;  that  notwithstanding  the  innumerable  misrepresen- 
tations and  prejudices  which  have  gone  forth  respecting  this 
concern,  they  have  firm  reliance  on  the  laws  of  their  country, 
and  feel  a  conscious  rectitude  in  the  justice  of  their  cause. 

"  When  we  look  around  and  see  many  of  our  fellow  citi- 
zens, who  are  engaged  in  pursuits  exclusively  for  their  own 
benefit,  guarded  and  protected  in  those  pursuits  by  the  laws 
of  their  country,  we  cannot  believe  that  those  who  have  con- 
tributed, in  any  degree,  to  benefit  their  fellow  citizens  and  the 
public,  will  be  deprived  of  the  same  protection,  and  aban- 
doned to  poverty. 

"  We  will  not  go  into  any  detailed  calculations  as  to  the 
value  of  this  invention,  but  only  observe,  that  the  citizens  of 
South  Carolina  have  gained,  and  will  gain,  many  millions  of 
dollars  by  the  use  of  this  machine,  which  they  never  could 
have  acquired  without  it.  Being  under  embarrassments  in 
consequence  of  debts  incurred  in  prosecuting  this  undertaking, 
and  desirous  of  obtaining  some  compensation  for  our  labors, 
we  will  not  measure  our  demand  by  the  value  of  the  property, 
but  are  willing  to  dispose  of  it  to  the  State  of  South  Carolina 
for  a  sum  far  below  its  real  value  ;  and  therefore  we  submit 
to  the  committee  the  following  PROPOSALS  : 

"  The  subscribers  will  relinquish  and  transfer  to  the  legisla- 
ture of  South  Carolina  so  much  of  their  patent-right  of  the 
machine  for  separating  cotton  from  its  seeds,  commonly  called 
the  Saw  Gin,  as  appertains  to  said  State,  for  the  sum  of  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  the  one  half  of  the  said  sum  to  be 
paid  on  the  transfer  of  said  right,  the  other  by  installments,  as 
shall  be  hereafter  agreed  upon.  MILLER  &  WHITNEY." 

4 


30 

Aftdt  some  discussion,  it  was  agreed  by  the  legislature  to 
offer  to  the  patentees  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars.  We 
subjoin  a  letter,  addressed  at  this  time  by  Mr.  Whitney  to  his 
friend  Stebbins,  both  as  a  statement  of  the  particulars  relating 
to  the  contract,  and  as  evincive  of  the  feelings  of  the  writer  : 

"  COLUMBIA,  South  Carolina,  Dec.  20,  1801. 

"  Dear  Stebbins, 

"  I  have  been  at  this  place  a  little  more  than  two  weeks,  at- 
tending the  legislature.  They  closed  their  session  at  ten 
o'clock  last  evening.  A  few  hours  previous  to  their  adjourn- 
ment, they  voted  to  purchase,  for  the  State  of  South  Carolina, 
my  patent-right  to  the  machine  for  cleaning  cotton,  at  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  of  which  sum,  twenty  thousand  is  to  be  paid 
in  hand,  and  the  remainder  in  three  annual  payments  of  ten 
thousand  dollars  each. 

"This  is  selling  the  right  at  a  great  sacrifice.  If  a  regular 
course  of  law  had  been  pursued,  from  two  to  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  would  undoubtedly  have  been  recovered.  The 
use  of  the  machine  here  is  amazingly  extensive,  and  the  value  of 
it  beyond  all  calculation.  It  may,  without  exaggeration,  be  said 
to  have  raised  the  value  of  seven  eights  of  all  the  three  South- 
ern States  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  per  cent.  We  get  but  a 
song  for  it  in  comparison  with  the  worth  of  the  thing  ;  but  it 
is  securing  something.  It  will  enable  Miller  &  Whitney  to 
pay  all  their  debts,  and  divide  something  between  them.  It 
establishes  a  precedent  which  will  be  valuable  as  it  respects  our 
collections  in  other  States,  and  I  think  there  is  now  a  fair 
prospect  that  I  shall  in  the  event  realize  property  enough  to 
render  me  comfortable,  and  in  some  measure  independent. 

"Though  my  stay  here  has  been  short,  I  have  become  ac- 
quainted with  a  considerable  part  of  the  members  of  the  legis- 
lature, and  of  the  most  distinguished  characters  in  the  State. 
My  old  classmate,  H.  D.  W.,  is  one  of  the  Senate.  He  ranks 
among  the  first  of  his  age  in  point  of  talents  and  respectability. 
He  has  shown  me  much  polite  attention,  as  have  also  many- 
others  of  the  citizens. 

Truly  your  friend, 

/.  Stebbins,  Esq.  ELI  WHITNEY." 


31 

In  December,  1802,  Mr.  Whitney  negotiated  a  sale  of  his 
patent-right  with  the  State  of  North  Carolina.  The  legisla- 
ture laid  a  tax  of  two  shillings  and  sixpence  upon  every  saw* 
employed  in  ginning  cotton,  to  be  continued  for  five  years, 
which  sum  was  to  be  collected  by  the  sheriffs  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  public  taxes  ;  and  after  deducting  the  expenses 
of  collection,  the  avails  were  faithfully  paid  over  to  the 
patentee.  At  that  time  the  culture  of  cotton  had  made  com- 
paratively little  progress  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina  ;  but, 
in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  interest  concerned,  this  com- 
pensation was  regarded  by  Mr.  Whitney  as  more  liberal  than 
that  received  from  any  other  source. 

While  these  encouraging  prospects  were  rising  in  North  Car- 
olina, Mr.  Goodrich,  the  agent  of  the  company,  was  entering 
into  a  similar  negotiation  with  the  State  of  Tennessee.  The  im- 
portance of  the  machine  began  to  be  universally  acknowledged 
in  that  State,  and  various  public  meetings  of  the  citizens  were 
held,  in  which  were  adopted  resolutions  strongly  in  favor  of 
a  public  contract  with  Miller  &  Whitney,  f  Accordingly,  the 
legislature  of  Tennessee,  at  their  session  in  1803,  passed  an 
act  laying  a  tax  of  thirty  seven  cents  and  a  half  per  annum  on 
every  saw,  for  the  period  of  four  years. 

But  while  a  fairer  day  seemed  dawning  upon  the  company 
in  this  quarter,  an  unexpected  and  threatening  cloud  was  rising 
in  another.  It  was  during  Mr.  Whitney's  negotiation  with 
the  legislature  of  North  Carolina,  that  he  received  intelligence 
that  the  legislature  of  South  Carolina  had  annulled  the  con- 
tract made  with  Miller  &  Whitney  the  preceding  year,  had 
suspended  payment  of  the  balance  (thirty  thousand  dollars)  due 
them,  and  instituted  a  suit  for  the  recovery  of  what  had 
already  been  paid  to  them. 

The  ostensible  causes  of  this  extraordinary  measure  adopted 
by  the  legislature  of  South  Carolina,  were  a  distrust  of  the 
validity  of  the  patent-right,  and  failure  on-the  part  of  the  pat- 
entees to  perform  certain  conditions  agreed  on  in  the  contract. 

*  Some  of  the  gins  had  forty  saws. 

t  Of  one  of  these  meetings.  General  Jackson,  late  President  of  the  United  States, 
was  chairman. 


32 

Great  exertions  had  constantly  been  made  in  Georgia  to  im- 
press the  public  with  the  nation,  that  Mr.  Whitney  was  not 
the  original  inventor  of  the  cotton  gin,  somebody  in  Switzer- 
land having  conceived  the  idea  of  it  before  him,  and,  especially, 
that  he  was  not  entitled  to  the  credit  of  the  invention  in  its 
improved  form,  in  which  saws  were  used  instead  of  wire  teeth, 
inasmuch  as  this  particular  form  of  the  machine  was  intro- 
duced by  one  Hodgin  Holmes.     It  was  on  these  grounds  that 
the  Governor  of  Georgia,  in  his  message  to  the  legislature  of 
that  State  in  1803,  urged  the  inexpediency  of  granting  any 
thing  to  Miller  &  Whitney.     We  have  before  us  a  copy  of 
the  report  of  the  committee  appointed  on  that  part  of  the  Gov- 
ernor's message,  and  since  it  will  serve  to  show  both  the 
grounds  and  the  character  of  the  opposition,  we  will  subjoin 
a  few  extracts  from  it.* 

"  The  Committee  to  whom  was  referred,  &c.  Report : — 
"  That  they  have  carefully  attended  to  that  part  of  the  com- 
munication which  relates  to  the  Cotton  Gin,  and  cordially 
agree  with  the  Governor  in  his  observations,  that  monopolies 
are  at  all  times  odious,  particularly  in  free  governments,  and 
that  some  remedy  ought  to  be  applied  to  the  wound  which  the 
cotton  gin  monopoly  has  given,  and  will  otherwise  continue  to 
give,  to  the  culture  and  cleaning  of  that  precious  and  increas- 
ing staple.  They  have  examined  the  Rev.  James  Hutchin- 
son,  who  declares  that  Edward  Lyon,  at  least  twelve  months 
before  Miller  &  Whitney's  machine  was  brought  into  view, 
had  in  possession  a  saw  or  cotton  gin,  in  miniature,  of  the 
same  construction ;  and  it  further  appears  to  them,  from  the 
information  of  Doctor  Cortes  Pedro  Dampiere,  an  old  and  re- 
spectable citizen  of  Columbia  County,  that  a  machine  of  a 
construction  similar  to  that  of  Miller  &  Whitney,  was  used  in 
Switzerland,  at  least  forty  years  ago,  for  the  purpose  of  pick- 
ing rags  to  make  lint  and  paper. 

"  That,  however,  as  Congress  has  the  constitutional  power 

*In  adverting  to  these  transactions  of  former  times,  it  is  no  part  of  our  purpose  to 
revive  unpleasant  recollections,  or  to  throw  discredit  on  the  history  of  the  very  re- 
spectable States  above  named ;  but  without  the  recital  of  these  facts,  the  life  of 
Whitney  could  not  have  been  written. 


33 

to  establish  patents  of  the  nature  of  Miller  &  Whitney's,  the 
commitee,  uniting  with  the  Governor  in  opinion  that  no  legis- 
lative power  but  Congress  can  interfere,  and  also  convinced 
that  in  the  passage  of  the  law  Congress  could  have  had  no 
idea  of  laying  the  two  Southern  States,  and  in  all  probability 
North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  under  contribution  to  two 
individuals,  (the  article  at  the  passing  of  the  first  act  not  being 
thought  of,  as  about  to  become  the  principal  staple  of  export 
from  those  States,)  do  recommend  the  following  resolutions : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Senators  and  Representatives  of  this 
State  in  Congress  be,  and  they  hereby  are,  instructed  to  use 
their  utmost  endeavors  to  obtain  a  modification  of  the  act,  en- 
titled an  act  to  extend  the  privilege  of  obtaining  Patents  for 
useful  discoveries  and  inventions,  to  certain  persons  therein 
mentioned,  and  to  enlarge  and  define  the  penalties  for  violating 
the  rights  of  patentees,  so  as  to  prevent  the  operation  of  it,  to 
the  injury  of  that  most  valuable  staple  cotton,  and  the  cramp- 
ing of  genius  in  improvements,  in  Miller  &  Whitney's  pat- 
ent Gin,  as  well  as  to  limit  the  price  of  obtaining  a  right  of 
using  it,  the  price  at  present  being  unbounded,  and  the  planter 
and  poor  artificer  altogether  at  the  mercy  of  the  patentees, 
who  may  raise  the  price  to  any  sum  they  please. 

"  And  in  case  the  said  Senators  and  Representatives  of  this 
State  shall  find  such  modification  impracticable,  that  they  do- 
then  use  their  best  endeavors  to  induce  Congress,  from  the  ex- 
ample of  other  nations,  to  make  compensation  to  Miller  & 
Whitney  for  their  discovery,  take  up  the  patent-right,  and  re- 
lease the  Southern  States  from  so  burthensome  a  grievance. 

"  Resolved,  That  his  Excellency  the  Governor  be  requested 
to  transmit  copies  of  the  foregoing  report  and  resolutions  to 
the  Executives  of  the  States  of  South  Carolina,  North  Caro- 
lina, and  Tennessee,  to  be  laid  before  their  respective  legisla- 
tures, with  a  request  of  cooperation,  through  their  Senators 
and  Representatives  in  Congress." 

Popular  feeling,  stimulated  by  the  most  sordid  motives,  was 
now  awakened  throughout  all  the  cotton-growing  States. 
Tennessee  followed  the  example  of  South  Carolina,  in  sus- 
pending the  payment  of  the  tax  laid  upon  cotton  gins,  and  a. 


34 

similar  attempt  was  made  at  a  subsequent  session  of  the  legis- 
lature of  North  Carolina  ;  but  it  wholly  failed,  and  the  report  of 
a  committee,  offering  a  resolution  that  "  the  contract  ought  to 
be  fulfilled  with  punctuality  and  good  faith,"  was  adopted  by 
both  branches  of  the  legislature. 

There  were  also  high-minded  men  in  South  Carolina,  who 
were  indignant  at  the  dishonorable  measures  adopted  by  their 
legislature  of  1803,  and  their  sentiments  had  impressed  the 
community  so  favorably  with  regard  to  Mr.  Whitney,  that  at 
the  session  of  1804,  the  legislature  not  only  rescinded  what  the 
previous  legislature  had  done,  but  signified  their  respect  for 
Mr.  Whitney,  by  marked  commendations. 

Nor  ought  it  to  be  forgotten,  that  there  were  in  Georgia  too 
those  who  viewed  with  scorn  and  indignation  the  base 
attempts  of  men,  led  by  unprincipled  demagogues,  to  defraud 
Mr.  Whitney.  The  Augusta  Herald  of  January  10,  1805, 
mentions  the  transactions  in  South  Carolina  in  the  following 
manner : 

"  Our  readers  will  no  doubt  recollect  that  the  legislature  of 
South  Carolina,  a  year  or  two  past,  purchased  of  Messrs.  Mil- 
ler &  Whitney  the  patent-right  of  using  the  Saw  Gin  in  that 
State,  for  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars.  In  this  contract, 
Mr.  Whitney  was  obligated,  within  a  stipulated  time,  to  fur- 
nish the  State  with  two  models  of  the  Saw  Gin,  of  the  best 
size  and  make,  according  to  his  opinion,  for  separating  cotton 
from  its  seed.  From  some  unexpected  circumstances  the 
models  were  not  furnished  in  due  time  ;  and  some  gross  mis- 
representations having  been  made  to  a  subsequent  legislature 
of  that  State,  and  considerable  improper  exertion  having  been 
made  to  persuade  them  that  Mr.  Whitney  was  not  the  original 
inventor  of  the  Saw  Gin,  they  rather  precipitately  passed,  an 
act  for  a  resolution,  suspending  the  execution  of  their  con- 
tract, and  directing  a  suit  to  be  brought  against  Messrs.  Miller 
&  Whitney  for  the  recovery  of  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
which,  as  part  of  the  contract,  had  been  paid  them.  At  the 
last  session  of  the  legislature,  Mr.  Whitney  was  enabled 
not  only  to  furnish  satisfactory  evidence  of  his  being  the 
original  inventor  of  the  gin,  but  to  explain  away  all  former 


35 

misrepresentations,  and  to  show  that  the  very  patent  of  the 
person  who  had  attempted  to  wrest  from  him  his  right,  had 
been  repealed  in  a  court  of  justice.  Two  models  of  a  gin 
were  also  furnished  by  Mr.  Whitney,  executed,  we  are  told,  in 
a  most  superior  and  masterly  manner,  and  far  surpassing  in 
excellence  any  machinery  of  the  kind  ever  before  seen — they 
were  of  metal,  and  so  nicely  and  substantially  made,  that  it 
was  hardly  possible  for  them  to  get  out  of  order  ;  and  they 
worked  with  such  ease,  that  when  the  hopper  of  a  forty  Saw 
Gin  was  filled  with  cotton,  the  labor  of  turning  it  was  not 
greater  than  that  of  turning  a  common  grindstone.  The  mod- 
els were  highly  approved,  and  the  legislature  did  not  hesitate 
to  do  justice  to  the  ingenious  inventor,  according  to  their  orig- 
inal agreement ;  and  we  are  pleased  to  see  that  they  dis- 
claimed the  monstrous  doctrine  of  a  legislature's  having  au- 
thority to  rescind  a  solemn  contract  made  with  an  individual, 
and  of  their  being  justified  in  refusing  to  do  right,  because  they 
have  the  power  to  do  wrong. 

"  Our  sister  State  of  South  Carolina  has  usually  been  very 
far  from  discovering  any  disposition  to  do  injustice  to  individ- 
uals, and  their  proceedings  against  Mr.  Whitney  were  predi- 
cated upon  imposition  practised  on  them,  and  their  recent  con- 
duct evidences  that  they  were  satisfied  thereof. 

"  The  following  is  the  report  of  the  committee : — 
"  The  joint  Committee  of  both  branches  of  the  legislature,  to 

whom  was  referred  the  memorial  of  Eli  Whitney,  Report, 

"  That  on  the  most  mature  deliberation,  they  are  of  opinion 
that  Miller  &  Whitney,  from  whom  the  State  of  South  Caro- 
lina purchased  the  patent-right  for  using  the  Saw  Gin  within 
this  State,  have  used  due  and  proper  diligence  to  refund  the 
money  and  notes  received  by  them  from  divers  citizens ;  and 
as  from  several  unforeseen  occurrences  the  said  Miller  & 
Whitney  have  heretofore  been  prevented  from  refunding  the 
same,  they  therefore  recommend  that  the  money  and  notes 
aforesaid  be  deposited  with  the  Comptroller  General,  to  be 
paid  over,  on  demand,  to  the  several  persons  from  whom  the 
same  have  been  received,  upon  their  delivering  up  the  licenses 
for  which  the  said  notes  of  hand  were  given,  and  said  moneys 


36 

paid  to  the  Comptroller  General,  and  that  he  be  directed  to 
hold  the  said  licenses  subject  to  the  order  of  said  Whitney. 

"  That  the  excellent  and  highly  improved  models  now 
offered  by  the  said  Whitney,  be  received  in  full  satisfaction  of 
the  stipulations  of  the  contract  between  the  State  and  Miller  & 
Whitney,  relative  to  the  same  ;  and  that  the  suit  commenced 
by  the  State  against  said  Miller  &  Whitney,  be  discontinued. 

"  The  joint  committee  taking  every  circumstance  alledged  in 
the  memorial  into  their  serious  consideration,  further  recom- 
mend, that  (as  the  good  faith  of  this  State  is  pledged  for  the 
payment  of  the  purchase  of  the  said  patent-right)  the  contract 
be  now  fulfilled,  as  in  their  opinion  it  ought  to  be,  according  to 
the  most  strict  justice  and  equity. 

"  And  although  from  the  documents  exhibited  by  said  Whit- 
ney to  the  committee,  they  are  of  opinion  that  the  said  Whit- 
ney is  the  true,  original  inventor  of  the  Saw  Gin,  yet  in  order 
to  guard  the  citizens  from  any  injury  hereafter,  the  committee 
recommend,  that  before  the  remaining  balance  is  paid,  the  said 
Whitney  be  required  to  give  bond  and  security  to  the  Comp- 
troller General,  to  indemnify  each  and  every  citizen  of  South 
Carolina  against  the  legal  claims  of  all  persons  whatsoever, 
other  than  the  said  Miller  &  Whitney,  to  any  patent  or  exclu- 
sive right  to  the  invention  or  improvement  of  the  machine  for 
separating  cotton  from  its  seeds, commonly  called  the  Saw  Gin, 
in  the  form  and  upon  the  principles  which  it  is  now  and  has 
heretofore  been  used  in  this  State. 

"  The  preceding  report  was  adopted  by  both  branches  of 
the  legislature." 

When  Mr.  Whitney  first  heard  of  the  transactions  of  the 
South  Carolina  legislature  annulling  their  contract,  he  was  at 
Raleigh,  where  he  had  just  concluded  his  negotiation  with  the 
legislature  of  North  Carolina.  In  a  letter  written  to  Mr.  Mil- 
ler at  this  time  he  remarks :  "  I  am,  for  my  own  part,  more 
vexed  than  alarmed  by  their  extraordinary  proceedings.  I 
think  it  behooves  us  to  be  very  cautious  and  circumspect  in  our 
measures  and  even  in  our  remarks  with  regard  to  it.  Be  cau- 
tious what  you  say  or  publish  till  we  meet  our  enemies  in  a 
court  of  justice,  when,  if  they  have  any  sensibility  left,  we 


37 

will  make  them  very  much  ashamed  of  their  childish  con- 
duct." 

But  that  Mr.  Whitney  felt  very  keenly  in  regard  to  the  se- 
verities afterwards  practised  towards  him,  is  evident  from  the 
tenor  of  the  remonstrance  which  he  presented  to  the  legisla- 
ture. "  The  subscriber  (says  he)  respectfully  solicits  permis- 
sion to  represent  to  the  legislature  of  South  Carolina,  that  he 
conceives  himself  to  have  been  treated  with  unreasonable  se- 
verity in  the  measures  recently  taken  against  him  by  and  under 
their  immediate  direction.  He  holds  that,  to  be  seized  and 
dragged  to  prison  without  being  allowed  to  be  heard  in  answer 
to  the  charge  alledged  against  him,  and  indeed  without  the  ex- 
hibition of  any  specific  charge,  is  a  direct  violation  of  the  com- 
mon right  of  every  citizen  of  a  free  government ;  that  the 
power,  in  this  case,  is  all  on  one  side ;  that  whatever  may  be 
the  issue  of  the  process  now  instituted  against  him,  he  must,  in 
any  case,  be  subjected  to  great  expense  and  extreme  hardships ; 
and  that  he  considers  the  tribunal  before  which  he  is  holden  to 
appear,  to  be  wholly  incompetent  to  decide,  definitely,  existing 
disputes  between  the  State  and  Miller  &  Whitney. 

"  The  subscriber  avers  that  he  has  manifested  no  other  than 
a  disposition  to  fulfill  all  the  stipulations  entered  into  with  the 
State  of  South  Carolina,  with  punctuality  and  good  faith  ;  and 
he  begs  leave  to  observe  farther,  that  to  have  industriously, 
laboriously,  and  exclusively  devoted  many  years  of  the  prime 
of  his  life  to  the  invention  and  the  improvement  of  a  ma- 
chine, from  which  the  citizens  of  South  Carolina  have  already 
realized  immense  profits, — which  is  worth  to  them  millions, 
and  from  which  their  posterity,  to  the  latest  generations,  must 
continue  to  derive  the  most  important  benefits,  and  in  return 
to  be  treated  as  a  felon,  a  swindler,  and  a  villain,  has  stung  him 
to  the  very  soul.  And  when  he  considers  that  this  cruel  per- 
secution is  inflicted  by  the  very  persons  who  are  enjoying 
these  great  benefits,  and  expressly  for  the  purpose  of  prevent- 
ing his  ever  deriving  the  least  advantage  from  his  own  labors, 
the  acuteness  of  his  feelings  is  altogether  inexpressible." 

At  this  time  a  new  and  unexpected  responsibility  devolved 
on  Mr.  Whitney,  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  his  partner, 

5 


Mr.  Miller,  who  died  on  the  7th  of  December,  1803.  Mr. 
Miller  had,  in  the  early  stages  of  the  enterprise,  indulged  very 
high  hopes  of  a  sudden  fortune ;  but  perpetual  disappoint- 
ments appear  to  have  attended  him  throughout  the  remainder 
of  his  life.  The  history  of  them,  as  detailed  in  his  volumin- 
ous correspondence,  which  is  now  before  us,  affords  an  in- 
structive exemplification  of  the  anxiety,  toil,  and  uncertainty, 
that  frequently  accompany  too  eager  a  pursuit  of  wealth,  and 
the  pain  and  disappointment  that  follow  in  the  train  of  ex- 
pectations too  highly  elated.  If  Mr.  Miller  anticipated  a  great 
bargain  from  an  approaching  auction  of  cotton,  some  sly  ad- 
venturer was  sure  to  step  in  before  him,  and  bid  it  out  of  his 
hands.  If  he  looked  to  his  extensive  rice  crops,  cultivated  on 
the  estate  of  General  Greene,  as  the  means  of  raising  money 
to  extricate  himself  from  the  numerous  embarrassments  into 
which  he  had  fallen,  a  severe  drought  came  on  and  shriveled 
the  crop,  or  floods  of  rain  suddenly  destroyed  it.  The  mar- 
kets unexpectedly  changed  at  the  very  moment  of  selling,  and 
always  to  his  disadvantage.  Heavy  rains  likewise  destroyed 
the  cotton  crops  on  which  he  had  counted  for  thousands ;  and 
more  than  all,  wicked  and  dishonest  men  contrived  to  cheat 
him  of  his  just  rights  ;  and  thus  his  airy  hopes  were  often  frus- 
trated, until  at  length  the  speculations  in  Yazoo  lands  beguiled 
him  into  inextricable  difficulties,  and  in  the  midst  of  all,  and 
on  the  dawn  of  a  brighter  day,  death  stepped  in  and  dissolved 
the  pageant  that  had  so  long  been  dancing  before  his  eyes. 

Mr.  Whitney  was  now  left  alone,  to  contend  singly  against 
those  difficulties  which  had  for  a  series  of  years  almost  bro- 
ken down  the  spirits  of  both  the  partners.  The  light,  more- 
over, which  seemed  to  be  rising  upon  them,  from  the  favorable 
occurrences  of  the  preceding  year,  proved  but.  the  twilight  of 
prosperity,  and  a  darker  night  seemed  about  to  supervene. 

But  the  favorable  issue  of  the  affairs  of  Mr.  Whitney  in 
South  Carolina,  during  the  subsequent  year,  and  the  generous 
receipts  that  he  obtained  from  the  avails  of  his  contracts  with 
North  Carolina,  relieved  him  from  the  embarrassments  under 
which  he  had  so  long  groaned,  and  made  him  in  some  degree 
independent.  Still,  no  small  portion  of  the  funds  thus  collected 


39 

in  North  and  South  Carolina,  was  expended  in  carrying  on 
the  fruitless,  endless  lawsuits  in  Georgia. 

In  the  United  States  Court,  held  in  Georgia,  in  December, 
1807,  Mr.  Whitney  obtained  a  most  important  decision,  in  a 
suit  brought  against  a  trespasser  of  the  name  of  Fort.  It  was 
on  this  trial  that  Judge  Johnson  gave  his  celebrated  decision. 
It  was  in  the  following  words  : 

"  Whitney,  survivor  of  ^ 
Miller  ^Whitney,        I  ]n  equi(y_ 

Arthur  Fort.  J 

"  The  complainants,  in  this  case,  are  proprietors  of  the  ma- 
chine called  the  saw  gin.  The  use  of  which  is  to  detach  the 
short  staple  cotton  from  its  seed. 

"  The  defendant,  in  violation  of  their  patent-right,  has  con- 
structed, and  continues  to  use  this  machine  ;  and  the  object  of 
this  suit  is  to  obtain  a  perpetual  injunction  to  prevent  a  con- 
tinuance of  this  infraction  of  complainant's  right. 

"  Defendant  admits  most  of  the  facts  in  the  bill  set  forth, 
but  contends  that  the  complainants  are  not  entitled  to  the  ben- 
efits of  the  act  of  Congress  on  this  subject,  because — 

1st.  The  invention  is  not  original. 

2d.  Is  not  useful. 

3d.  That  the  machine  which  he  uses  is  materially  different 
from  their  invention,  in  the  application  of  an  improvement, 
the  invention  of  another  person. 

"  The  court  will  proceed  to  make  a  few  remarks  upon  the 
several  points,  as  they  have  been  presented  to  their  view: 
whether  the  defendant  was  now  at  liberty  to  set  up  this  de- 
fence, whilst  the  patent-right  of  complainants  remains  unre- 
pealed,  has  not  been  made  a  question,  and  they  will  therefore 
not  consider  it. 

"  To  support  the  originality  of  the  invention,  the  complain- 
ants have  produced  a  variety  of  depositions  of  witnesses,  ex- 
amined under  commission,  whose  examination  expressly  proves 
the  origin,  progress,  and  completion  of  the  machine  by  Whit- 
ney, one  of  the  co-partners.  Persons  who  were  made  privy 
to  his  first  discovery,  testify  to  the  several  experiments  which 


40 

he  made  in  their  presence,  before  he  ventured  to  expose  his 
invention  to  the  scrutiny  of  the  public  eye.  But  it  is  not  ne- 
cessary to  resort  to  such  testimony  to  maintain  this  point- 
The  jealousy  of  the  artist  to  maintain  that  reputation  which 
his  ingenuity  has  justly  acquired,  has  urged  him  to  unnecessa- 
ry pains  on  this  subject.  There  are  circumstances  in  the 
knowledge  of  all  mankind,  which  prove  the  originality  of  this 
invention  more  satisfactorily  to  the  mind,  than  the  direct  tes- 
timony of  a  host  of  witnesses.  The  cotton  plant  furnished  cloth- 
ing to  mankind  before  the  age  of  Herodotus.  The  green  seed 
is  a  species  much  more  productive  than  the  black,  and  by  na- 
ture adapted  to  a  much  greater  variety  of  climate.  But  by 
reason  of  the  strong  adherence  of  the  fibre  to  the  seed,  with- 
out the  aid  of  some  more  powerful  machine  for  separating  it, 
than  any  formerly  known  among  us,  the  cultivation  of  it  would 
never  have  been  made  an  object.  The  machine  of  which  Mr. 
Whitney  claims  the  invention,  so  facilitates  the  preparation  of 
this  species  for  use,  that  the  cultivation  of  it  has  suddenly  be- 
come an  object  of  infinitely  greater  national  importance  than 
that  of  the  other  species  ever  can  be.  Is  it  then  to  be  imag- 
ined that  if  this  machine  had  been  before  discovered,  the 
use  of  it  would  ever  have  been  lost,  or  could  have  been  con- 
fined to  any  tract  or  country  left  unexplored  by  commercial 
enterprise  ?  But  it  is  unnecessary  to  remark  further  upon  this 
subject.  A  number  of  years  have  elapsed  since  Mr.  Whitney 
took  out  his  patent,  and  no  one  has  produced  or  pretended  to 
prove  the  existence  of  a  machine  of  similar  construction  or 
use. 

*  2d.  With  regard  to  the  utility  of  this  discovery,  the  Court 
would  deem  it  a  waste  of  time  to  dwell  long  upon  this  topic. 
Is  there  a  man  who  hears  us,  who  has  not  experienced  its  util- 
ity ?  The  whole  interior  of  the  Southern  States  was  languish- 
ing, and  its  inhabitants  emigrating  for  want  of  some  object  to 
engage  their  attention  and  employ  their  industry,  when  the 
invention  of  this  machine  at  once  opened  views  to  them,  which 
set  the  whole  country  in  active  motion.  From  childhood  to 
age  it  has  presented  to  us  a  lucrative  employment.  Individ- 
uals who  were  depressed  with  poverty  and  sunk  in  idleness, 


41 

have  suddenly  risen  to  wealth  and  respectability.  Our  debts 
have  been  paid  off.  Our  capitals  have  increased,  and  our  lands 
trebled  themselves  in  value.  We  cannot  express  the  weight 
of  the  obligation  which  the  country  owes  to  this  invention. 
The  extent  of  it  cannot  now  be  seen.  Some  faint  presenti- 
ment may  be  formed  from  the  reflection  that  cotton  is  rapidly 
supplanting  wool,  flax,  silk,  and  even  furs  in  manufactures,  and 
may  one  day  profitably  supply  the  use  of  specie  in  our  East 
India  trade.  Our  sister  States,  also,  participate  in  the  benefits 
of  this  invention ;  for,  besides  affording  the  raw  material  for 
their  manufacturers,  the  bulkiness  and  quantity  of  the  article 
afford  a  valuable  employment  for  their  shipping. 

"3d.  The  third  and  last  ground  taken  by  defendant,  appears 
to  be  that  on  which  he  mostly  relies.  In  the  specification,  the 
teeth  made  use  of  are  of  strong  wire  inserted  into  the  cylin- 
der. A  Mr.  Holmes  has  cut  teeth  in  plates  of  iron,  and  passed 
them  over  the  cylinder.  This  is  certainly  a  meritorious  im- 
provement in  the  mechanical  process  of  constructing  this  ma- 
chine. But  at  last,  what  does  it  amount  to,  except  a  more  con- 
venient mode  of  making  the  same  thing  ?  Every  characteris- 
tic of  Mr.  Whitney's  machine  is  preserved.  The  cylinder, 
the  iron  tooth,  the  rotary  motion  of  the  tooth,  the  breast  work 
and  brush,  and  all  the  merit  that  this  discovery  can  assume,  is 
that  of  a  more  expeditious  mode  of  attaching  the  tooth  to  the 
cylinder.  After  being  attached,  in  operation  and  effect  they 
are  entirely  the  same.  Mr.  Whitney  may  not  be  at  liberty  to 
use  Mr.  Holmes'  iron  plate,  but  certainly  Mr.  Holmes'  im- 
provement does  not  destroy  Mr.  Whitney's  patent-right.  Let 
the  decree  for  a  perpetual  injunction  be  entered." 

This  favorable  decision,  however,  did  not  put  a  final  stop  to 
aggression.  At  the  next  session  of  the  United  States  Court, 
two  other  actions  were  brought,  and  verdicts  for  damages 
gained  of  two  thousand  dollars  in  one  case,  and  one  thousand 
five  hundred  dollars  in  the  other.  The  history  of  these  suits, 
as  reported  for  one  of  the  journals  of  the  day,  appears  to  us 
to  be  a  document  worth  preserving,  on  account  of  the  light  it 
throws  on  the  subject  of  patent-rights  in  general,  as  well  as 
in  relation  to  the  subject  before  us. 


42 

LAW  CASE. — At  a  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the 
district  of  Georgia,  lately  holden  in  this  city,  [Savannah,]  was 
tried  the  case  of  Eli  Whitney  vs.  Isaiah  Carter,  for  infringing 
a  right  vested  by  patent,  "  for  a  new  and  useful  improvement 
in  the  mode  of  ginning  cotton."  The  plaintiff  supported  his 
declaration  by  proving  the  patent,  model,  and  specification, 
and  proving  the  use  of  the  machine  in  question  by  the  defend- 
ant. He  also  introduced  the  testimony  of  several  witnesses 
residing  in  New  Haven,  to  prove  the  origin  and  progress  of 
his  invention. 

The  defendant  rested  his  defence  on  two  grounds — First : 
That  the  machine  was  not  originally  invented  by  Whitney. — 
Second :  That  the  specification  does  not  contain  the  whole 
truth,  relative  to  the  discovery. 

General  Mitchell,  of  counsel  for  the  defendant,  produced  a 
model  which  was  intended  to  represent  a  machine  used  in 
Great  Britain  for  cleaning  cotton,  denominated  the  "  Teazer  or 
Devil." — A  witness  was  produced,  who  testified  that  he  had 
seen  in  England,  about  seventeen  years  ago,  a  machine  for 
separating  cotton  from  the  seed,  which  resembled  in  principle 
the  model  now  exhibited  by  defendant. 

Another  witness  testified,  that  he  had  seen  a  machine  in 
Ireland,  upon  the  same  principle,  which  was  used  for  separa- 
ting the  motes  from  the  cotton  before  going  to  the  carding 
machine. 

By  the  machine,  of  which  a  model  was  exhibited,  the  cotton 
is  applied  in  the  first  instance  to  rollers  made  of  iron,  revolv- 
ing conversely.  By  these  rollers,  the  fibres  are  separated  from 
the  seeds  and  protruded  within  the  sweep  of  certain  straight 
pieces  of  wire,  revolving  on  a  cylinder,  which  tear  and  loosen 
the  cotton  as  they  revolve.  It  was  contended  by  the  defend- 
ant's counsel,  that  this  model  conforms  'in  principle  to  Mr* 
Whitney's  machine,  and  that  the  evidence  given  in  support  of 
it,  establishes  a  presumption,  that  he  must  have  derived  the 
plan  of  his  machine  from  a  similar  one  used  in  the  cotton 
manufactories  in  Great  Britain. 

In  support  of  the  second  ground  of  defence,  evidence  was 
produced  to  show  that  Mr.  Whitney  now  uses,  and  that  the 


43 

defendant  also  uses,  teeth  formed  of  circular  iron  plates,  in- 
stead of  teeth  made  of  wire.  And  it  was  contended  that  this 
is  a  departure  from  the  specification,  and  an  improvement  on 
the  original  discovery,  which  destroys  the  merit  of  that  dis- 
covery, and  the  validity  of  plaintiff's  patent.  It  was  also 
insisted  that  the  plaintiff  had  concealed  the  best  means  of  pro- 
ducing the  effect  contemplated. 

Mr.  Noel,  of  counsel  for  the  plaintiff,  in  opposition  to  the 
first  ground  of  defence,  stated  two  points — First :  That  if  the 
principle  be  the  same,  yet  the  plaintiff's  application  of  that 
principle  being  new,  and  for  a  distinct  purpose,  has  all  the 
merit  of  an  original  invention.  Second :  That  the  principle 
of  Mr.  Whitney's  machine  is  entirely  different  from  that  ex- 
hibited by  defendant. 

He  defined  the  term  principle,  as  applied  to  mechanic  arts, 
to  mean  the  elements  and  rudiments  of  those  arts,  or,  in  other 
words,  the  first  ground  and  rule  for  them :  that  for  a  mere 
principle,  a  patent  cannot  be  obtained :  that  neither  the  ele- 
ments, nor  the  manner  of  combining  them,  nor  even  the  effect 
produced,  can  be  the  subject  of  a  patent,  and  that  it  can  only 
be  obtained  for  the  application  of  this  effect  to  some  new  and 
useful  purpose. 

To  prove  this  position,  several  examples  were  stated  of  im- 
portant inventions,  for  which  patents  had  been  obtained,  which 
had  resulted  from  principles  previously  in  common  use,  and 
an  argument  of  a  celebrated  Judge,  at  Westminster  Hall,  was 
cited,  in  which  it  was  asserted,  "that  two  thirds  or  three 
fourths  of  all  patents  granted  since  the  statute  passed,  are  for 
methods  of  operating  and  manufacturing,  producing  no  new 
substances,  and  employing  no  new  machinery ;"  and  he  adds, 
in  the  significant  words  of  Lord  Mansfield,  "  a  patent  must  be 
for  method,  detached  from  all  physical  existence  whatever." 

The  second  point  was  principally  relied  on,  to  wit :  That 
the  principle  of  Mr.  Whitney's  machine  is  distinct  from  that 
produced  by  defendant,  and  new  in  its  origin. 

It  consists  of  teeth,  or  sharp  metallic  points,  of  a  particular 
form  and  shape,  and  its  application  is  to  separate  cotton  from 
the  seed  ^  whereas  the  principle  of  the  model  exhibited  by  the 


44 

defendant,  and  of  every  other  machine  before  invented,  and 
used  for  the  same,  or  any  similar  purpose,  consists  of  two 
small  rollers  made  of  wood  or  iron.  In  illustration  of  this 
point,  the  plaintiff's  counsel  cited  the  opinion  of  this  court, 
delivered  by  Judge  Johnson,  in  December  term,  1807,  in  the 
case  of  Whitney  and  others  vs.  Fort,  upon  a  bill  for  injunction. 

The  second  objection  relied  on  by  the  defendant,  was  "  that 
the  specification  does  not  contain  the  whole  truth  respecting 
the  discovery."  To  this  it  was  answered,  that  by  the  testi- 
mony it  appears  Mr.  Whitney,  in  the  original  construction  of 
his  machine,  contemplated  each  mode  of  making  the  teeth,  and 
doubted  which  mode  was  best  adapted  to  the  purpose.  If  the 
alteration  which  forms  the  basis  of  this  objection  has  the  merit 
of  an  improvement,  how  far  does  it  extend  ?  An  improve- 
ment, not  in  the  principle,  nor  in  the  operation  of  the  machine, 
but  in  making  one  of  its  component  parts ;  merely  in  forming 
the  same  thing,  to  produce  the  same  effect,  by  means  some- 
what different.  In  the  case  above  cited,  Judge  Johnson  re- 
marked on  this  point,  as  follows : 

"  A  Mr.  Holmes  has  cut  teeth  in  plates  of  iron,  and  passed 
them  over  the  cylinder.  This  is  certainly  a  meritorious  im- 
provement in  the  mechanical  process  of  constructing  this  ma- 
chine. But  at  last,  what  does  it  amount  to,  except  a  more  con- 
venient mode  of  making  the  same  thing  ?  Every  character- 
istic of  Mr.  Whitney's  machine  is  preserved.  The  cylinder, 
the  iron  tooth,  rotary  motion  of  the  tooth,  the  breast  work  and 
brush,  and  all  the  merit  that  this  discovery  can  assume,  is  that 
of  a  more  expeditious  mode  of  attaching  the  tooth  to  the  cyl- 
inder." 

The  counsel  for  Whitney  admitted  that  an  improvement  in 
a  particular  part  of  the  machine  would  entitle  the  inventor  to 
a  patent  for  a  new  and  better  mode  of  making  that  specific 
part,  but  not  for  the  whole  machine,  as  in  the  case  of  Boulton 
vs.  Bull,  where  a  patent  was  granted  for  an  invention  to  les- 
sen the  quantity  of  fuel  in  the  use  of  a  certain  Steam  Engine. 
It  was  decided  "  that  the  patent  was  valid  for  this  improve- 
ment, but  that  it  gave  no  title  to  the  engine  itself." 

It  was  also  stated,  that  by  experiments  made  on  plaintiff's 


45 

• 

model  in  the  face  of  the  court  and  jury,  and  by  testimony  pro- 
duced, it  was  apparent  no  improvement  had  resulted  from  this 
alteration ;  that  no  beneficial  change  or  amendment  in  the 
principle  had  taken  place  ;  nor  had  the  effect  been  aided  or  fa- 
cilitated. In  the  charge  of  the  court  to  the  jury,  Judge  Ste- 
phens remarked,  that  the  case  cited,  Whitney  and  others  vs. 
Fortt  was  decided  without  any  evidence  on  the  part  of  the  de- 
fendant : — that  from  the  testimony  now  produced,  his  opinion 
is,  that  the  plaintiff  must  have  received  his  first  impressions 
from  a  machine  previously  in  use,  on  a  similar  principle  ;  and 
that  an  improvement  had  been  made  as  to  the  teeth,  by  which 
the  merit  of  Mr.  Whitney's  original  invention  was  diminished. 
For  these  reasons  Judge  Stephens  had  some  doubts  whether 
the  plaintiff  ought  to  recover. 

Judge  Johnson  remarked  to  the  jury,  that  after  hearing  the 
evidence  which  had  been  relied  on  by  the  defendant,  he  re- 
mained content  with  the  opinion  which  he  had  given  in  the 
case  of  Whitney  against  Fort,  and  that  he  was  also  as  fully 
satisfied  with  the  charge  he  was  about  to  give,  as  any  he  had 
delivered.  That  as  to  the  origin  of  this  invention,  the  plain- 
tiffs title  remained  unimpeached  by  any  evidence  which  has 
been  adduced  in  this  cause.  He  agreed  with  the  plaintiff's 
counsel,  that  the  legal  title  to  a  patent  consists  not  in  a  princi- 
ple merely,  but  in  an  application  of  a  principle,  whether  pre- 
viously in  existence  or  not,  to  some  new  and  useful  purpose. 
And  he  was  also  of  opinion,  that  the  principle  of  Mr.  Whit- 
ney's machine  was  entirely  new,  that  it  originated  with  him- 
self, and  that  it  had  no  resemblance  to  that  of  the  model  ex- 
hibited by  the  defendant. 

He  considered  the  defendant's  second  objection  equally  un- 
supported, and  referred  to  the  sixth  section  of  the  Patent  Law 
of  the  United  States,  by  which  it  is  required  that  the  conceal- 
ment alledged  (in  order  to  defeat  the  patentee's  recovery)  must 
appear  to  have  been  made  for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the 
public.  That  Mr.  Whitney,  in  the  original  formation  of  this 
machine,  could  have  no  motive  for  such  concealment,  and  that 
in  making  use  of  wire,  in  preference  to  the  other  mode,  he  ap- 
pears to  have  acted  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  judgment. 

6 


46 

• 

If  in  this  instance  he  erred,  the  error  related  to  a  point  not  af- 
fecting the  merit  of  his  invention,  or  the  validity  of  his  patent. 
Verdict  for  plaintiff — damages  two  thousand  dollars. 

Same  Term,  Whitney  against  Gachet,  same  cause  of  action. 
Verdict  for  plaintiff — damages  one  thousand  five  hundred  dol- 
lars. 

The  influence  of  these  decisions,  however,  availed  Mr. 
Whitney  very  little,  for  now  the  term  of  his  patent-right  was 
nearly  expired.  More  than  sixty  suits  had  been  instituted  in 
Georgia  before  a  single  decision  on  the  merits  of  his  claim  was 
obtained,  and  at  the  period  of  this  decision,  thirteen  years  of 
his  patent  had  expired.  In  prosecution  of  this  troublesome 
business,  Mr.  Whitney  had  made  six  different  journeys  to 
Georgia,  several  of  which  were  accomplished  by  land,  at  a 
time  when,  compared  with  the  present,  the  difficulties  of  such 
journeys  were  exceedingly  great,  and  exposed  him  to  excess- 
ive fatigues  and  privations,  which  at  times  seriously  affected 
his  health,  and  even  jeopardized  his  life.  A  gentleman*  of 
much  experience  in  the  profession  of  law,  who  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  Mr.  Whitney's  affairs  in  the  South,  and  some- 
times acted  as  his  legal  adviser,  observes,  in  a  letter  obligingly 
communicated  to  the  writer  of  this  memoir,  that  "  in  all  his 
experience  in  the  thorny  profession  of  the  law,  he  has  never 
seen  such  a  case  of  perseverance,  under  such  persecution  ;  nor 
(he  adds)  do  I  believe  that  I  ever  knew  any  other  man  who 
would  have  met  them  with  equal  coolness  and  firmness,  or  who 
would  finally  have  obtained  even  the  partial  success  which  he 
had.  He  always  called  on  me  in  New  York,  on  his  way 
South,  when  going  to  attend  his  endless  trials,  and  to  meet  the 
mischievous  contrivances  of  men  who  seemed  inexhaustible  in 
their  resources  of  evil.  Even  now,  after  thirty  years,  my 
head  aches  to  recollect  his  narratives  of  new  trials,  fresh  dis- 
appointments, and  accumulated  wrongs." 

We  have  thought  the  Cotton  Gin  sufficiently  instructive  in 
its  history,  and  important  in  its  consequences,  to  merit  the 
attention  we  have  bestowed  upon  it.  After  a  more  cursory 

*  Hon.  S.  M.  Hopkins. 


•  47 

notice  of  the  other  chief  enterprise  which  occupied  the  life  of 
Mr.  Whitney,  we  shall  hasten  to  the  conclusion  of  this  memoir. 

In  1798,  Mr.  Whitney  became  deeply  impressed  with  the 
uncertainty  of  all  his  hopes  founded  upon  the  Cotton  Gin,  not- 
withstanding their  high  promise,  and  he  began  to  think  seri- 
ously of  devoting  himself  to  some  business  in  which  superior 
ingenuity,  seconded  by  uncommon  industry,  qualifications 
which  he  must  have  been  conscious  of  possessing  in  no  ordin- 
ary degree,  would  conduct  him  by  a  slow,  but  sure  route,  to  a 
competent  fortune ;  and  we  have  always  considered  it  indic- 
ative of  a  solid  judgment  and  a  well  balanced  mind,  that  he 
did  not,  as  is  frequently  the  case  with  men  of  inventive  genius, 
become  so  poisoned  with  the  hopes  of  vast  and  sudden  wealth, 
as  to  be  disqualified  for  making  a  reasonable  provision  for 
life,  by  the  sober  earnings  of  frugal  industry. 

The  enterprise  which  he  selected  in  accordance  with  these 
views,  was  the  Manufacture  of  Arms  for  the  United  States. 
He  accordingly  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Hon.  Oliver  Wolcott, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  through  his  influence  obtained 
a  contract  for  ten  thousand  stand  of  arms,  amounting  (as  the 
price  of  each  musket  was  to  be  thirteen  dollars  and  forty 
cents)  to  one  hundred  and  thirty  four  thousand  dollars, — an 
undertaking  of  great  responsibility,  considering  the  limited 
pecuniary  resources  of  the  undertaker.  This  contract  was 
concluded  on  the  14th  of  January,  1798,  and  four  thousand 
were  to  be  delivered  on  or  before  the  last  day  of  September 
of  the  ensuing  year,  and  the  remaining  six  thousand  in  one 
year  from  that  time  ;  so  that  the  whole  contract  was  to  be 
fulfilled  within  a  little  more  than  the  period  of  two  years  ;  and 
for  the  due  fulfillment  of  it,  Mr.  Whitney  entered  into  bonds  to 
the  amount  of  thirty  thousand  dollars.  He  must  have  enga- 
ged in  this  undertaking  resolved  "  to  attempt  great  things," 
without  stopping  to  weigh  all  the  chances  against  him  ;  for  as 
yet,  the  works  were  all  to  be  erected,  the  machinery  to  be 
made,  and  much  of  it  to  be  invented  ;  the  raw  materials  were 
to  be  collected  from  different  quarters,  and  the  workmen  them- 
selves, almost  without  exception,  were  yet  to  learn  the  trade. 
Nor  was  it  a  business  with  which  Mr.  Whitney  himself  was 


48 

particularly  conversant.  Mechanical  invention,  a  sound  judg- 
ment, and  persevering  industry,  were  all  that  he  possessed,  at 
first,  for  the  accomplishment  of  a  manufacturing  enterprise, 
which  was  at  that  time  probably  greater  than  any  man  had 
ever  undertaken,  in  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

The  low  state  of  the  mechanic  arts,  moreover,  increased 
his  difficulties.  There  were  in  operation  near  him  no  kindred 
mechanical  establishments,  upon  which  some  branches  of  his 
own  business  might  lean :  even  his  very  tools  required  to  be 
to  a  great  extent  fabricated  by  himself.  If  it  is  recollected 
also,  in  what  a  depressed  state  the  cotton  ginning  business  was 
at  this  period,  it  will  appear  still  more  evincive  of  the  bold 
spirit  of  enterprise  which  Mr.  Whitney  possessed,  as  it  will  be 
seen  that  he  could  not  avail  himself  of  any  resources  from 
that  quarter,  nor  could  he  reasonably  hope  to  derive  from  the 
same  source  any  future  succor.  But  Mr.  Whitney  had  strong 
friends  among  the  most  substantial  citizens  of  New  Haven, 
who  had  been  witnesses  alike  of  the  fertility  of  his  genius 
and  the  extent  of  his  industry.  Ten  of  these  came  forward 
as  his  security  to  the  bank  of  New  Haven,  for  a  loan  of  ten 
thousand  dollars.  Mr.  Wolcott,  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  advanced  five  thousand  more  at  the  time  of  contract, 
with  the  promise  of  a  similar  sum,  as  soon  as  the  preparatory 
arrangements  for  the  manufacture  of  arms  was  completed. 
No  farther  advances  were  to  be  demanded,  until  one  thousand 
stand  of  arms  were  ready  for  delivery;  at  which  time  the  addi- 
tional sum  of  five  thousand  dollars  was  to  be  advanced.  Full 
payment  was  to  be  made  on  the  delivery  of  each  successive 
thousand,  with  occasional  advances  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Secretary. 

The  expenses  incurred  in  getting  the  establishment  fully  into 
operation,  must  have  greatly  exceeded  -the  expectation  of  the 
parties,  for  advances  of  ten  and  fifteen  thousand  dollars  were 
successively  made  by  the  government,  above  what  was  orig- 
inally contemplated  ;  but  the  confidence  of  the  government 
seems  never  to  have  been  impaired ;  for  the  Secretary,  after 
having  examined  Mr.  Whitney's  works  in  person,  declared  to 
him,  in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  that  the  advances  which  he 


49 

had  made  had  been  laid  out  with  great  prudence  and  econ- 
omy, and  that  the  undertaker  had  done  more  than  he  should 
have  supposed  possible  with  the  sum  advanced. 

The  site  which  Mr.  Whitney  had  purchased  for  his  works, 
was  at  the  foot  of  the  celebrated  precipice  called  East  Rock, 
within  two  miles  of  New  Haven.  This  spot  (which  is  now 
called  Whitneyville)  is  justly  admired  for  the  romantic  beauty 
of  its  scenery.  A  waterfall  of  moderate  extent  afforded  here 
the  necessary  power  for  propelling  the  machinery.  In  this 
pleasant  retreat  Mr.  Whitney  commenced  his  operations,  with 
the  greatest  zeal ;  but  he  soon  became  sensible  of  the  multi- 
plied difficulties  which  he  had  to  contend  with.  A  winter  of 
uncommon  severity  set  in  early  and  suspended  his  labors,  and 
when  the  spring  returned,  he  found  himself  so  little  advanced, 
that  he  foresaw  that  he  should  be  utterly  unable  to  deliver  the 
four  thousand  muskets  according  to  contract.  In  this  predica- 
ment, he  resolved  to  throw  himself  on  the  indulgence  of  the  en- 
lightened Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  whom  he  explained  at 
length  the  various  causes  which  had  conspired  to  retard  his 
operations. 

"  I  find,  (says  he,)  that  my  personal  attention  and  oversight 
are  more  constantly  and  essentially  necessary  to  every  branch 
of  the  work,  than  I  apprehended.  Mankind,  generally,  are  not 
to  be  depended  on,  and  the  best  workmen  I  can  find  are  inca- 
pable of  directing.  Indeed,  there  is  no  branch  of  the  work  that 
can  proceed  well,  scarcely  for  a  single  hour,  unless  I  am  present." 
At  the  end  of  the  first  year  after  the  contract  was  made, 
instead  of  four  thousand  muskets,  only  five  hundred  were  de- 
livered, and  it  was  eight  years,  instead  of  two,  before  the 
whole  ten  thousand  were  completed.  The  entire  business  re- 
lating to  the  contract  was  not  closed  until  January,  1809, 
when,  (so  liberally  had  the  government  made  advances  to  the 
contractor,)  the  final  balance  due  Mr.  Whitney  was  only  two 
thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

During  the  ten  years  Mr.  Whitney  was  occupied  in  perform- 
ing this  engagement,  he  applied  himself  to  business  with  the 
most  exemplary  diligence,  rising  every  morning  as  soon  as  it 
was  day,  and  at  night,  setting  every  thing  in  order  appertain- 


50 

ing  to  all  parts  of  the  establishment,  before  he  retired  to  rest. 
His  genius  impressed  itself  on  every  part  of  the  manufactory, 
extending  even  to  the  most  common  tools,  all  of  which  re- 
ceived some  peculiar  modification  which  improved  them  in 
accuracy,  or  efficacy,  or  beauty.  His  machinery  for  making 
the  several  parts  of  a  musket,  was  made  to  operate  with  the 
greatest  possible  degree  of  uniformity  and  precision.  The 
object  at  which  he  aimed,  and  which  he  fully  accomplished, 
was  to  make  the  same  part  of  different  guns,  as  the  locks,  for 
example,  as  much  like  each  other  as  the  successive  impres- 
sions of  a  copper-plate  engraving.  It  has  generally  been  con- 
ceded that  Mr.  Whitney  greatly  improved  the  art  of  manu- 
facturing arms,  and  laid  his  country  under  permanent  obliga- 
tions, by  augmenting  her  facilities  for  national  defence.  So 
rapid  has  been  the  improvement  in  the  arts  and  manufactures 
in  this  country,  that  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  the  low  state 
in  which  they  were  thirty  years  ago.  To  this  advancement, 
the  genius  and  industry  of  Mr.  Whitney  most  essentially  con- 
tributed, for  while  he  was  clearing  off  the  numerous  impedi- 
ments which  were  thrown  in  his  way,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
performing  the  office  of  a  pioneer  to  the  succeeding  generation. 
In  the  year  1812,  he  entered  into  a  new  contract  with  the 
United  States,  to  manufacture  for  them  fifteen  thousand  stand 
of  arms ;  and  in  the  meantime  he  executed  a  similar  engage- 
ment, (we  know  not  how  extensive,)  for  the  State  of  New 
York.  Although  his  resources  enabled  him  now  to  proceed 
with  much  greater  dispatch,  and  with  far  less  embarrassment 
than  in  his  first  enterprise,  yet  some  misunderstanding  arose 
with  one  of  the  agents  of  the  government,  which  made  it  ne- 
cessary for  him  to  bring  his  case  before  the  Secretary  of 
War.  The  following  testimonials,  which  he  obtained  on 
this  occasion  from  Governor  Tompkins,  and  from  Governor 
Wolcott,  will  serve  to  show  in  what  estimation  he  was  held 
by  those  who  knew  him  best,  and  who  were  most  competent 
'  to  judge  of  his  merits.  The  letters,  dated  May,  1814,  are  both 
addressed  to  General  Armstrong,  the  existing  Secretary  of 
War.  Governor  Tompkins  observes  as  follows  :  "  I  have  vis- 
ited Mr.  Whitney's  establishment  at  New  Haven,  and  have  no 


51 

hesitation  in  saying,  that  I  consider  it  the  most  perfect  I  have 
ever  seen  ;  and  I  believe  it  is  well  understood,  that  few  per- 
sons in  this  country  surpass  Mr.  Whitney  in  talents  as  a  me- 
chanic, or  in  experience  as  a  manufacturer  of  muskets.  Those 
which  he  has  made  for  us,  are  generally  supposed  to  exceed, 
in  form  and  quality,  all  the  muskets  either  of  foreign  or  do- 
mestic fabrication,  belonging  to  the  State,  and  are  universally 
preferred  and  selected  by  the  most  competent  judges. 

"  It  is  perhaps  proper  for  me  to  observe  further,  that  all  Mr. 
Whitney's  contracts  with  the  State  of  New  York  have  been 
performed  with  integrity,  and  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the 
several  military  commissaries  of  the  State." 

Governor  Wolcott's  testimony  is  still  more  full,  as  his  op- 
portunities for  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Whitney  had  been  more 
extensive.  We  insert  the  letter  entire,  as  not  only  indicating 
the  high  reputation  of  the  individual  to  whom  it  relates,  but 
as  exemplifying  the  liberality  with  which  the  writer  is  known 
always  to  have  fostered  and  encouraged  genius  and  merit. 

"  New  York,  May  7,  1814. 

«  Sir — I  have  the  honor  to  address  you  on  behalf  of  my 
friend,  Eli  Whitney,  Esq.,  of  New  Haven,  who  is  a  manufac- 
turer of  arms,  under  a  contract  with  your  department.  Mr. 
Whitney  first  engaged  in  this  business  under  a  contract  with 
me,  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  when,  according  to  exist- 
ing laws,  all  contracts  for  military  supplies  were  formed  under 
my  superintendence.  I  have  since  been  constantly  acquainted 
with  him,  and  venture  to  assure  you  that  the  present  improved 
state  of  our  manufactures  is  greatly  indebted  to  his  skill  and 
exertions  ;  that  though  a  practical  mechanic,  he  is  also  a  gen- 
tleman of  liberal  education,  a  man  of  science,  industry  and  in- 
tegrity, and  that  his  inventions  and  labors  have  been  as  useful 
to  this  country  as  those  of  any  other  individual.  Moreover, 
that  if  any  further  alterations  or  improvements  in  the  con- 
struction of  military  machines  are  proposed,  Mr.  Whitney  is 
one  of  the  few  men  who  can  safely  and  advantageously  be 
consulted,  respecting  the  best  mode  of  giving  them  effect. 

"  I  make  these  declarations  to  you  with  a  perfect  convic- 
tion that  they  express  nothing  more  than  Mr.  Whitney  has  a 


52 

right  to  demand  from  every  man  who  is  acquainted  with  his 
merits  and  capable  of  estimating  their  value  ;  and  understand- 
ing that  he  experiences  some  difficulties  in  regard  to  his  con- 
tract, I  venture  respectfully  to  request  that  you  would  so  far 
extend  to  him  your  favor  as  to  inform  yourself  particularly  of 
the  merits  of  his  case  and  the  services  he  can  perform  ;  in 
which  case  I  am  certain  he  will  receive  all  the  patronage  and 
protection  to  which  he  is  entitled. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  remain,  with  the  highest  respect,  Sir, 
your  obedient  servant,  (Signed)  OLIVER  WOLCOTT. 

"  The  Hon.  Secretary  Armstrong." 

^Several  other  persons  made  contracts  with  the  government 
at  about  the  same  time,  and  attempted  the  manufacture  of 
muskets,  following  substantially,  so  far  as  they  understood  it, 
the  method  pursued  in  England.  The  result  of  their  efforts 
was  a  complete  failure  to  manufacture  muskets  of  the  quality 
required,  at  the  price  agreed  to  be  paid  by  the  government ; 
and  in  some  instances  they  expended  in  the  execution  of  their 
contracts,  a  considerable  fortune  in  addition  to  the  whole 
amount  received  for  their  work. 

The  low  state  to  which  the  arts  had  been  depressed  in  this 
country  by  the  policy  of  England,  under  the  colonial  system, 
and  from  which  they  had  then  scarcely  begun  to  recover,  to- 
gether with  the  high  price  of  labor  and  other  causes,  con- 
spired to  render  it  impracticable  at  that  time  even  for  those 
most  competent  to  the  undertaking,  to  manufacture  muskets 
here  in  the  English  method.  And  doubtless  Mr.  Whitney 
would  have  shared  the  fate  of  his  enterprising,  but  unsuccess- 
ful competitors,  had  he  adopted  the  course  which  they  pur- 
sued ;  but  his  genius  struck  out  for  him  a  course  entirely  new. 

In  maturing  his  system  he  had  many  obstacles  to  combat, 
and  a  much  longer  time  was  occupied  than  he  had  anticipated  ; 
but  with  his  characteristic  firmness  he  pursued  his  object,  in 
the  face  of  the  obloquy  and  ridicule  of  his  competitors,  the 
evil  predictions  of  his  enemies,  and  the  still  more  discoura- 

*  For  the  following  remarks  on  the  manufacture  of  arms,  the  writer  of  this  arti- 
cle is  indebted  to  a  gentleman  who  is  personally  and  intimately  acquainted  with  the 
subject 


53 

ging  and  disheartening  misgivings,  doubts  and  apprehensions 
of  his  friends.  His  efforts  were  at  length  crowned  with  suc- 
cess, and  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  finding  that  the  business 
which  had  proved  so  ruinous  to  others,  was  likely  to  prove  not 
altogether  unprofitable  to  himself. 

Our  limits  do  not  permit  us  to  give  a  minute  and  detailed 
account  of  this  system  ;  and  we  shall  only  glance  at  two  or 
three  of  its  more  prominent  features,  for  the  purpose  of  illus- 
trating its  general  character. 

The  several  parts  of  the  musket  were,  under  this  system, 
carried  along  through  the  various  processes  of  manufacture, 
in  lots  of  some  hundreds  or  thousands  of  each.  In  their  va- 
rious stages  of  progress,  they  were  made  to  undergo  success- 
ive operations  by  machinery,  which  not  only  vastly  abridged 
the  labor,  but  at  the  same  time  so  fixed  and  determined  their 
form  and  dimensions,  as  to  make  comparatively  little  skill 
necessary  in  the  manual  operations.  Such  were  the  construc- 
tion and  arrangement  of  this  machinery,  that  it  could  be 
worked  by  persons  of  little  or  no  experience,  and  yet  it  per- 
formed the  work  with  so  much  precision,  that  when,  in  the 
later  stages  of  the  process,  the  several  parts  of  the  musket  came 
to  be  put  together,  they  were  as  readily  adapted  to  each  other, 
as  if  each  had  been  made  for  its  respective  fellow.  A  lot  of 
these  parts  passed  through  the  hands  of  several  different  work- 
men successively,  (and  in  some  cases  several  times  returned,  at 
intervals  more  or  less  remote,  to  the  hands  of  the  same  work- 
man,) each  performing  upon  them  every  time  some  single  and 
simple  operation,  by  machinery  or  by  hand,  until  they  were 
completed.  Thus  Mr.  Whitney  reduced  a  complex  business, 
embracing  many  ramifications,  almost  to  a  mere  succession  of 
simple  processes,  and  was  thereby  enabled  to  make  a  division 
of  the  labor  among  his  workmen,  on  a  principle  which  was  not 
'only  more  extensive,  but  also  altogether  more  philosophical 
than  that  pursued  in  the  English  method.  In  England,  the  la- 
bor of  making  a  musket  was  divided  by  making  the  different 
workmen  the  manufacturers  of  different  limbs,  while  in  Mr. 
Whitney's  system  the  work  was  divided  with  reference  to  its 

7 


54 

nature,  and  several  workmen  performed  different  operations 
on  the  same  limb. 

It  will  be  readily  seen  that  under  such  an  arrangement  any 
person  of  ordinary  capacity  would  soon  acquire  sufficient  dex- 
terity to  perform  a  branch  of  the  work.  Indeed,  so  easy  did 
Mr.  Whitney  find  it  to  instruct  new  and  inexperienced  work- 
men, that  he  uniformly  preferred  to  do  so,  rather  than  to  at- 
tempt to  combat  the  prejudices  of  those  who  had  learned  the 
business  under  a  different  system. 

When  Mr.  Whitney's  mode  of  conducting  the  business  was 
brought  into  successful  operation,  and  the  utility  of  his  ma- 
chinery was  fully  demonstrated,  the  clouds  of  prejudice  which 
lowered  over  his  first  efforts  were  soon  dissipated,  and  he  had 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  not  only  his  system,  but  most  of  his 
machinery,  introduced  into  every  other  considerable  establish- 
ment for  the  manufacture  of  arms,  both  public  and  private,  in 
the  United  States. 

The  labors  of  Mr.  Whitney  in  the  manufacture  of  arms 
have  been  often  and  fully  admitted  by  the  officers  of  the  gov- 
ernment, to  have  been  of  the  greatest  value  to  the  public  in- 
terest. A  former  Secretary  of  War  admitted,  in  a  conversa- 
tion with  Mr.  Whitney,  that  the  government  were  saving 
twenty  five  thousand  dollars  per  annum  at  the  two  public  ar- 
mories alone,  by  his  improvements.  This  admission,  though 
it  is  believed  to  be  far  below  the  truth,  is  sufficient  to  show 
that  the  subject  of  this  memoir  deserved  well  of  his  country 
in  this  department  of  her  service. 

It  should  be  remarked  that  the  utility  of  Mr.  Whitney's  la- 
bors during  the  period  of  his  life  which  we  have  now  been 
contemplating,  was  not  limited  to  the  particular  business  in 
which  he  was  engaged.  Many  of  the  inventions  which  he 
made  to  facilitate  the  manufacture  of  muskets,  were  applica- 
ble to  most  other  manufactures  of  iron  and  steel.  To  many 
of  these  they  were  soon  extended,  and  became  the  nucleus 
around  which  other  inventions  clustered ;  and  at  the  present 
time  some  of  them  may  be  recognized  in  almost  every  consid- 
erable workshop  of  that  description  in  the  United  States. 

In  the  year  1812,  Mr.  W.  made  application  to  Congress  for 


55 

the  renewal  of  his  patent  for  the  cotton  gin.  In  his  memorial 
he  presented  a  history  of  the  struggles  he  had  been  forced  to 
encounter  in  defence  of  his  right,  observing  that  he  had  been 
unable  to  obtain  any  decision  on  the  merits  of  his  claim  until 
he  had  been  eleven  years  in  the  law,  and  thirteen  years  of  his 
patent  term  had  expired.  He  sets  forth,  that  his  invention 
had  been  a  source  of  opulence  to  thousands  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States  ;  that  as  a  labor-saving  machine  it  would  ena- 
ble one  man  to  perform  the  work  of  a  thousand  men  ;  and  that 
it  furnishes  to  the  whole  family  of  mankind,  at  a  very  cheap 
rate,  the  most  essential  article  of  their  clothing.  Hence,  he 
humbly  conceived  himself  entitled  to  a  further  remuneration 
from  his  country,  and  thought  he  ought  to  be  admitted  to  a 
more  liberal  participation  with  his  fellow  citizens  in  the  bene- 
fits of  his  invention.  Although  so  great  advantages  had  been 
already  experienced,  and  the  prospect  of  future  benefits  was 
so  promising,  still  many  of  those  whose  interest  had  been  most 
promoted,  and  the  value  of  whose  property  had  been  most  en- 
hanced by  this  invention,  had  obstinately  persisted  in  refusing 
to  make  any  compensation  to  the  inventor.  The  very  men 
whose  wealth  had  been  acquired  by  the  use  of  this  machine, 
and  who  had  grown  rich  beyond  all  former  example,  had 
combined  their  exertions  to  prevent  the  patentee  from  deriving 
any  emolument  from  his  invention.  From  that  State  in  which 
he  had  first  made  and  where  he  had  first  introduced  his  ma- 
chine, and  which  had  derived  the  most  signal  benefits  from  it, 
he  had  received  nothing  ;  and  from  no  State  had  he  received 
the  amount  of  half  a  cent  per  pound  on  the  cotton  cleaned 
with  his  machines  in  one  year.  Estimating  the  value  of  the 
labor  of  one  man  at  twenty  cents  per  day,  the  whole  amount 
which  had  been  received  by  him  for  his  invention,  was  not 
equal  to  the  value  of  the  labor  saved  in  one  hour  by  his  machines 
then  in  use  in  the  United  States.  "  This  invention  (he  pro- 
ceeds) now  gives  to  the  southern  section  of  the  Union,  over 
and  above  the  profits  which  would  be  derived  from  the  culti- 
vation of  any  other  crop,  an  annual  emolument  of  at  least 
three  millions  of  dollars."*  The  foregoing  statement  does  not 


*  This  was  in  1812  ;  the  amount  of  profit  is  at  this  time  incomparably  greater. 


56 

rest  on  conjecture, — it  is  no  visionary  speculation, — all  these 
advantages  have  been  realized ;  the  planters  of  the  southern 
States  have  counted  the  cash,  felt  the  weight  of  it  in  their 
pockets,  and  heard  the  exhilarating  sound  of  its  collision. 
Nor  do  the  advantages  stop  here ;  this  immense  source  of 
wealth  is  but  just  beginning  to  be  opened.  Cotton  is  a  more 
cleanly  and  healthful  article  of  cultivation  than  tobacco  and 
indigo,  which  it  has  superseded,  and  does  not  so  much  impov- 
erish the  soil.  This  invention  has  already  trebled  the  value  of 
the  land  through  a  great  extent  of  territory ;  and  the  degree 
to  which  the  cultivation  of  cotton  may  be  still  augmented,  is 
altogether  incalculable.  This  species  of  cotton  has  been 
known  in  all  countries  where  cotton  has  been  raised,  from  time 
immemorial,  but  was  never  known  as  an  article  of  commerce, 
until  since  this  method  of  cleaning  it  was  discovered.  In 
short,  (to  quote  the  language  of  Judge  Johnson,)  if  we  should 
assert  that  the  benefits  of  this  invention  exceed  one  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  we  can  prove  the  assertion  by  correct  cal- 
culation. It  is  objected  that  if  the  patentee  succeeds  in  pro- 
curing the  renewal  of  his  patent,  he  will  be  too  rich.  There 
is  no  probability  that  the  patentee,  if  the  term  of  his  patent 
were  extended  for  twenty  years,  would  ever  obtain  for  his  in- 
vention one  half  as  much  as  many  an  individual  will  gain  by 
the  use  of  it.  Up  to  the  present  time,  the  whole  amount  of 
what  he  has  acquired  from  this  source,  (after  deducting  his  ex- 
penses,) does  not  exceed  one  half  the  sum  which  a  single  indi- 
vidual has  gained  by  the  use  of  the  machine  in  one  year.  It 
is  true  that  considerable  sums  have  been  obtained  from  some 
of  the  States  where  the  machine  is  used  ;  but  no  small  portion 
of  these  sums  has  been  expended  in  prosecuting  his  claim  in  a 
State  where  nothing  has  been  obtained,  and  where  his  ma- 
chine has  been  used  to  the  greatest  advantage. 

"  Your  memorialist  has  not  been  able  to  discover  any  reason 
why  he,  as  well  as  others,  is  not  entitled  to  share  the  benefits 
of  his  own  labors.  He  who  speculates  upon  the  markets,  and 
takes  advantage  of  the  necessities  of  others,  and  by  these 
means  accumulates  property,  is  called  'a  man  of  enterprise' — *a 
man  of  business* — he  is  complimented  for  his  talents,  and  is  pro- 


57 

tected  by  the  laws.  He,  however,  only  gets  into  his  possession 
that  which  was  before  in  the  possession  of  another ;  he  adds 
nothing  to  the  public  stock ;  and  can  he  who  has  given  thousands 
to  others,  be  thought  unreasonable  if  he  asks  one  in  return  ? 

"It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  by 
means  of  new  inventions,  is  a  very  precarious  and  uncertain 
one  ; — a  lottery  where  there  are  many  thousand  blanks  to  one 
prize.  Of  all  the  various  attempts  at  improvements,  there  is 
probably  not  more  than  one  in  five  hundred  for  which  a  patent 
is  taken  out ;  and  of  all  the  patents  taken  out,  not  one  in 
twenty  has  yielded  a  net  profit  to  the  patentee  equal  to  the 
amount  of  the  patent  fees.  In  cases  where  a  useful  and  valu- 
able invention  is  brought  into  operation,  the  reward  ought  to 
be  in  proportion  to  the  hazard  of  the  pursuit.  The  patent  law 
has  now  been  in  operation  more  than  fourteen  years.  Many 
suits  for  damages  have  been  instituted  against  those  who  have 
infringed  the  right  of  patentees ;  and  it  is  a  fact,  that  very 
rarely  has  the  patentee  ever  recovered.  If  you  would  hold 
out  inducements  for  men  of  real  talents  to  engage  in  these 
pursuits,  your  rewards  must  be  sure  and  substantial.  Men  of 
this  description  can  calculate  and  will  know  how  to  appre- 
ciate the  recompense  which  they  are  to  receive  for  their  labors. 
If  the  encouragement  held  out  be  specious  and  delusive,  the 
discerning  will  discover  the  fallacy  and  will  despise  it ;  the 
weak  and  visionary  only  will  be  decoyed  by  it,  and  your  pat- 
ent office  will  be  filled  with  rubbish.  The  number  of  those 
who  succeed  in  bringing  into  operation  really  useful  and  im- 
portant improvements,  always  has  been,  and  always  must  be, 
very  small.  It  is  not  probable  that  this  number  can  ever  be 
as  great  as  one  in  a  hundred  thousand.  It  is  therefore  impos- 
sible that  they  can  ever  exert  upon  the  community  an  undue 
influence.  There  is,  on  the  contrary,  much  probability  and 
danger  that  their  rights  will  be  trampled  on  by  the  many." 

Notwithstanding  these  cogent  arguments,  the  application 
was  rejected  by  Congress.  Some  liberal-minded  and  enlight- 
ened men  from  the  cotton  districts,  favored  the  petition ;  but 
a  majority  of  the  members  from  that  section  of  the  Union 
were  warmly  opposed  to  granting  it. 


58 

In  a  correspondence  with  the  late  Mr.  Robert  Fulton,  on  the 
same  subject,  Mr.  Whitney  observes  as  follows :  "  The  diffi- 
culties with  which  I  have  had  to  contend  have  originated,  prin- 
cipally, in  the  want  of  a  disposition  in  mankind  to  do  justice. 
My  invention  was  new  and  distinct  from  every  other  :  it  stood 
alone.  It  was  not  interwoven  with  any  thing  before  known  ; 
and  it  can  seldom  happen  that  an  invention  or  i  mprovement 
is  so  strongly  marked,  and  can  be  so  clearly  and  specifically 
identified ;  and  I  have  always  believed,  that  I  should  have  had 
no  difficulty  in  causing  my  rights  to  be  respected,  if  it  had 
been  less  valuable,  and  been  used  only  by  a  small  portion  of 
the  community.  But  the  use  of  this  machine  being  immensely 
profitable  to  almost  every  planter  in  the  cotton  districts,  all 
were  interested  in  trespassing  upon  the  patent-right,  and  each 
kept  the  other  in  countenance.  Demagogues  made  themselves 
popular  by  misrepresentation  and  unfounded  clamors,  both 
against  the  right  and  against  the  law  made  for  its  protection. 
Hence  there  arose  associations  and  combinations  to  oppose 
both.  At  one  time,  but  few  men  in  Georgia  dared  to  come 
into  court  and  testify  to  the  most  simple  facts  within  their 
knowledge,  relative  to  the  use  of  the  machine.  In  one  in- 
stance, I  had  great  difficulty  in  proving  that  the  machine  had 
been  used  in  Georgia,  although,  at  the  same  moment,  there 
were  three  separate  sets  of  this  machinery  in  motion,  within 
fifty  yards  of  the  building  in  which  the  court  sat,  and  all  so 
near  that  the  rattling  of  the  wheels  was  distinctly  heard  on 
the  steps  of  the  court-house."* 

*  In  one  of  his  trials,  Mr.  Whitney  adopted  the  following  plan,  in  order  to  show 
how  nugatory  were  the  methods  of  evasion  practised  by  his  adversaries.  They 
were  endeavoring  to  have  his  claim  to  the  invention  set  aside,  on  the  ground  that 
the  teeth  in  his  machine  were  made  of  wire,  inserted  into  the  cylinder  of  wood, 
while  in  the  machine  of  Holmes,  the  teeth  were  cut  in  plates,  or  iron  surrounding 
the  cylinder,  forming  a  circular  saw.  Mr.  Whitney,  by  an  ingenious  device,  (con- 
sisting chiefly  of  sinking  the  plate  below  the  surface  of  the  cylinder,  and  suffering 
the  teeth  to  project,)  contrived  to  give  to  the  saw  teeth  the  appearance  of  wires, 
while  he  prepared  another  cylinder  in  which  the  wire  teeth  were  made  to  look 
like  saw  teeth.  The  two  cylinders  were  produced  in  court,  and  the  witnesses  were 
called  on  to  testify  which  was  the  invention  of  Whitney,  and  which  that  of  Holmes. 
They  accordingly  swore  the  saw  teeth  upon  Whitney,  and  the  wire  teeth  upon 
Holmes ;  upon  which  the  Judge  declared  that  it  was  unnecessary  to  proceed  any 
farther,  the  principle  of  both  being  manifestly  the  same. 


59 

In  the  midst  of  these  fruitless  efforts  to  secure  to  himself 
some  portion  of  the  advantages,  which  so  many  of  his  fellow 
citizens  were  reaping  from  his  ingenuity,  his  armory  pro- 
ceeded with  sure  but  steady  pace,  which  bore  him  on  to  afflu- 
ence. For  the  few  following  years  he  occupied  himself  prin- 
cipally in  the  concerns  of  his  manufactory,  inventing  new 
kinds  of  machinery,  and  improving  and  perfecting  the  old. 

In  January,  1817,  Mr.  Whitney  was  married  to  Miss  Hen- 
rietta F.  Edwards,  youngest  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Pierpont 
Edwards,  late  Judge  of  the  District  Court  for  the  State  of 
Connecticut.  The  fond  and  quiet  scenes  of  domestic  life, 
after  which  he  had  so  long  aspired,  but  from  which  he  had 
been  debarred  by  the  embarrassed  or  unsettled  state  of  his 
affairs,  now  spread  before  him  in  the  fairest  light.  Four  chil- 
dren, a  son  and  three  daughters,*  added  successively  fresh 
attractions  to  the  family  circle.  Happy  in  his  home  and  easy 
in  his  fortune,  with  a  measure  of  respectability  among  his  fel- 
low citizens,  and  celebrity  abroad,  which  might  well  satisfy 
an  honorable  ambition,  he  seemed  to  have  in  prospect,  after  a 
day  of  anxiety  and  toil,  an  evening  unusually  bright  and  serene. 

In  this  uniform  and  happy  tenor,  he  passed  the  five  follow- 
ing years,  when  a  formidable  maladyf  began  to  make  its  ap- 
proaches, by  a  slow  but  hopeless  progress,  which  at  length  ter- 
minated his  life. 

We  are  indebted  to  a  near  friend  and  eye  witness,  for  the 
following  account  of  his  last  illness.  In  September,  1822,  im- 
mediately after  his  return  from  Washington,  he  experienced 
the  first  attack  of  his  complaint,  which  immediately  threat- 
ened his  life.  For  three  weeks  the  event  was  very  doubtful, 
during  which  time  he  occasionally  suffered  paroxysms  of  pain, 
of  from  thirty  to  forty  minutes  continuance,  severe  beyond 
description.  These  were  repeated  six  or  eight  times  in  every 
twenty  four  hours.  For  six  weeks  he  was  confined  to  his 

*  The  youngest  of  these  died  in  September,  1823,  aged  one  year  and  nine  months. 
Two  daughters,  and  a  son  hearing  his  father's  name,  (the  youngest  of  the  three,) 
still  survive. 

t  An  enlargement  of  the  prostate  gland. 


60 

room,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  was  able  to  walk  about 
the  house,  and  to  enjoy  the  society  of  his  friends.  Early  in 
January,  1823,  he  had  to  endure  another  period  of  suffering, 
not  less  alarming  or  distressing  than  the  former.  With  such 
alternations  of  awful  suffering  and  partial  repose,  he  reached 
the  12th  of  November,  1824,  at  which  period  his  sufferings  be- 
came almost  unremitted  until  the  8th  of  January,  1825,  when 
he  expired, — retaining  his  consciousness  to  the  last,  closing 
his  own  eyes,  and  making  an  effort  to  close  his  mouth. 

It  was  his  particular  request  that  there  should  be  no  exam- 
ination of  his  body  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  the  nature  of 
his  disease,  and  he  desired  his  funeral  to  be  conducted  with  as 
little  parade  as  possible. 

The  strongest  demonstrations  of  respect  and  regard  were 
manifested  by  the  citizens  of  New  Haven,  in  committing  his 
remains  to  the  earth,  and  the  Rev.  President  Day  pronounced 
over  his  grave  the  following  eulogy. 

"  How  frequent  and  how  striking  are  the  monitions  to  us, 
that  this  world  is  not  the  place  of  our  rest !  It  is  not  often 
the  case,  that  a  man  has  laid  his  plans  for  the  business  and  the 
enjoyment  of  life,  with  a  deeper  sagacity,  than  the  friend 
whose  remains  we  have  now  committed  to  the  dust.  He  had 
received,  as  the  gift  of  heaven,  a  mind  of  a  superior  order. 
Early  habits  of  thinking  gave  to  it  a  character  of  independ- 
ence and  originality.  He  was  accustomed  to  form  his  decis- 
ions, not  after  the  model  of  common  opinion,  but  by  his  own 
nicely  balanced  judgment.  His  mind  was  enriched  with 
the  treasures  which  are  furnished  by  a  liberal  education. 
He  had  a  rare  fertility  of  invention  in  the  arts  ;  an  exactness 
of  execution  almost  unequalled.  By  a  single  exercise  of  his 
powers,  he  changed  the  state  of  cultivation,  and  multiplied  the 
wealth  of  a  large  portion  of  our  country.  He  set  an  example 
of  system  and  precision  in  mechanical  operations,  which  others 
had  not  thought  of  even  attempting. 

"  The  high  qualities  of  his  mind,  instead  of  unfitting  him 
for  ordinary  duties,  were  finely  tempered  with  taste  and  judg- 
ment in  the  business  of  life.  His  manners  were  formed  by 
an  extensive  intercourse  with  the  best  society.  He  had  an 


61 

energy  of  character,  which  carried  him  through  difficulties, 
too  formidable  for  ordinary  minds. 

"  With  these  advantages,  he  entered  on  the  career  of  life. 
His  efforts  were  crowned  with  success.  An  ample  compe- 
tency was  the  reward  of  his  industry  and  skill.  He  had 
gained  the  respect  of  all  classes  of  the  community.  His  opin- 
ions were  regarded  with  peculiar  deference,  by  the  man  of 
science,  as  well  as  the  practical  artist.  His  large  and  liberal 
views,  his  knowledge  of  the  world,  the  wide  range  of  his  ob- 
servations, his  public  spirit,  and  his  acts  of  beneficence,  had 
given  him  a  commanding  influence  in  society.  The  gentle- 
ness and  refinement  of  his  manners,  and  the  delicacy  of  his 
feelings  in  the  social  and  domestic  relations,  had  endeared 
him  to  a  numerous  circle  of  relatives  and  friends. 

*'  And  what  were  his  reflections  in  review  of  the  whole,  in 
connection  with  the  distressing  scenes  of  the  last  period  of 
life  ?  *  All  is  as  the  flower  of  the  grass :  the  wind  passeth 
over  it,  and  it  is  gone/  All  on  earth  is  transient ;  all  in  eter- 
nity is  substantial  and  enduring.  His  language  was,  '  I  am  a 
sinner.  But  God  is  merciful.  The  only  ground  of  accept- 
ance before  Him,  is  through  the  great  Mediator.'  From  this 
mercy,  through  this  Mediator,  is  derived  our  solace  under  this 
heavy  bereavement.  On  this,  rest  the  hopes  of  the  mourners, 
that  they  shall  meet  the  deceased  with  joy,  at  the  resurrection 
of  the  just." 

In  his  person,  Mr.  Whitney  was  considerably  above  the  or- 
dinary size,  of  a  dignified  carriage,  and  of  an  open,  manly,  and 
agreeable  countenance.  His  manners  were  conciliatory,  and 
his  whole  appearance  such  as  to  inspire  universal  respect. 
Among  his  particular  friends,  no  man  was  more  esteemed. 
Some  of  the  earliest  of  his  intimate  associates  were  also  among 
the  latest.  With  one  or  two  of  the  bosom  friends  of  his  youth 
he  kept  up  a  correspondence  by  letter  for  thirty  years,  with 
marks  of  continually  increasing  regard.  His  sense  of  honor 
was  high,  and  his  feelings  of  resentment  and  indignation  occa- 
sionally strong.  He  could,  however,  be  cool  when  his  oppo- 
nents were  heated ;  and,  though  sometimes  surprised  by  pas- 
sion, yet  the  unparalleled  trials  of  patience  which  he  had  sus- 

8 


62 

tained  did  not  render  him  petulant,  nor  did  his  strong  sense  of 
the  injuries  he  had  suffered  in  relation  to  the  cotton  gin  impair 
the  natural  serenity  of  his  temper. 

But  the  most  remarkable  trait  in  the  character  of  Mr.  Whit- 
ney, aside  from  his  inventive  powers,  was  his  perseverance; 
and  this  is  the  more  remarkable,  because  it  is  so  common  to 
find  men  of  great  powers  of  mechanical  invention  deficient  in 
this  quality.  Nothing  is  more  frequent  than  to  see  a  man  of 
the  most  fertile  powers  of  invention,  run  from  one  piece  of 
mechanism  to  another,  leaving  the  former  half  finished  ;  or  if 
he  has  completed  any  thing,  it  is  usual  to  find  him  abandon  it 
to  others,  too  fickle  to  pursue  the  advantages  he  might  reap 
from  it,  or  too  sensitive  to  struggle  with  the  sordid  and  avari- 
cious, who  may  seek  to  rob  him  of  the  profits  of  his  invention. 
We  cannot  better  express  our  views  on  this  subject,  than  by 
transcribing  from  a  letter  now  before  us  the  following  remarks 
communicated  to  us  by  a  gentleman*  who  had  intimately 
known  Mr.  W.  from  early  life. 

"  I  have  reflected  often  and  much  upon  Mr.  Whitney's  char- 
acter, and  it  has  been  a  delightful  study  to  me.  I  wish  I  had 
time  to  bring  fully  to  your  view,  for  your  consideration,  that 
particular  excellence  of  mind  in  which  he  excelled  all  men 
that  I  have  ever  heard  of.  I  do  not  mean  that  his  power  of 
forming  mechanical  combinations  was  unlimited,  but  that  he 
had  it  under  such  perfect  control.  I  imagine  that  he  never  yet 
failed  of  accomplishing  any  result  of  mechanical  powers  and 
combinations  which  he  sought  for ;  nor  ever  sought  for  one 
for  which  he  had  not  some  occasion,  in  order  to  accomplish 
the  business  in  hand.  I  mean  that  his  invention  never  failed, 
and  never  ran  wild.  It  accomplished,  I  imagine,  without  ex- 
ception, all  that  he  ever  asked  of  it,  and  no  more.  I  empha- 
size this  last  expression,  from  having  in  -mind  the  case  of  a 
man  whose  invention  appeared  to  be  more  fertile  even  than 
Whitney's ;  but  he  had  it  under  no  control.  When  he  had 
imagined  and  half  executed  one  fine  thing,  his  mind  darted  off 
to  another,  and  he  perfected  nothing :  Whitney  perfected  all 
that  he  attempted  ;  carried  each  invention  to  its  utmost  limit 

»  Hon.  S.  M.  Hopkins. 


63 

of  usefulness ;  and  then  reposed  until  he  had  occasion  for 
something  else." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  the  full  value  of  Mr.  Whit- 
ney's labors,  without  going  into  a  minuteness  of  detail  incon- 
sistent with  our  limits.  Every  cotton  garment  bears  the  im- 
press of  his  genius,  and  the  ships  that  transported  it  across  the 
waters  were  the  heralds  of  his  fame,  and  the  cities  that  have 
risen  to  opulence  by  the  cotton  trade,  must  attribute  no  small 
share  of  their  prosperity  to  the  inventor  of  the  cotton  gin. 
We  have  before  us  the  declaration  of  the  late  Mr.  Fulton,  that 
Arkwright,  Watt  and  Whitney,  (we  would  add  Fulton  to  the 
number,)  were  the  three  men  who  did  most  for  mankind,  of 
any  of  their  cotemporaries ;  and,  in  the  sense  in  which  he  in- 
tended it,  the  remark  is  probably  true. 

Fabrics  of  cotton  are  now  so  familiar  to  us  and  so  univer- 
sally diffused,  that  we  are  apt  to  look  upon  them  rather  as  ori- 
ginal gifts  of  nature,  than  as  recent  products  of  human  inge- 
nuity. The  following  statements,  however,  will  show  how 
exceedingly  limited  the  cotton  trade  was  previous  to  the  in- 
vention of  the  cotton  gin. 

In  1784,  an  American  vessel  arrived  at  Liverpool,  having 
on  board,  for  part  of  her  cargo,  eight  bags  of  cotton,  which 
were  seized  by  the  officers  of  the  custom-house,  under  the  con- 
viction that  they  could  not  be  the  growth  of  America.*  The 
following  extracts  from  old  newspapers,  will  exhibit  the  extent 
of  the  cotton  trade  for  the  subsequent  years. 

Cotton  from  America  arrived  at  Liverpool. 

1785.  January.     Diana,  from  Charleston,  1  bag. 
February.  Tenign,  from  New  York,  1  do. 

June.  Grange,  from  Philadelphia,  3  do. — 5  bags. 

1786.  May.  Thomas,  from  Charleston,  2  do. 
June.  Juno,  from  Charleston,  4  do. — 6. 

1787.  April.  John,  from  Philadelphia,  6  do. 
June.  Wilson,  from  New  York,  9  do. 

Grange,  from  Philadelphia,  9  do. 
August.      Henderson,  from  Charleston,  40  do. 
Dec.  John,  from  Philadelphia,  44  do. — 108. 

1788.  January.    Mersey,  from  Charleston,  1  do. 

Grange,  from  Philadelphia,  5  do. 

*  See  Southern  Review  for  May,  1831. 


64 

1788.    June.         John,  from  Philadelphia,  30  bags. 
July.          Harriott,  from  New  York,  62  do. 
Grange,  from  Philadelphia,  111  do. 
Polly,  from  Charleston,  73  do.— 282. 

The  whole  domestic  exports  of  the  United  States  in  1825, 
were  valued  at  66,940,000  dollars,  of  which  value  36,846,000 
was  in  cotton  only.  In  general,  this  article  is  equal  to  some 
millions  more  than  one  half  the  whole  value  of  our  exports. 
The  average  growth  for  the  three  years  previous  to  1828.  was 
estimated  at  900,000  bales,  which  is  nearly  THREE  HUNDRED 
MILLIONS  OF  POUNDS,  of  which  about  one  fifth  was  consumed 
in  our  own  manufactories.* 

We  cannot  close  this  article  without  adding  one  or  two  re- 
flections that  have  occurred  to  us  while  perusing  the  papers  of 
Mr.  Whitney.  President  Dwight,  in  his  counsels  to  his  pupils, 
often  insisted  on  the  duty  of  men  of  high  standing  in  society* 
to  lend  their  influence  in  bringing  forward  young  men  of  prom- 
ise ;  and  no  one  was  ever  more  ready  than  that  great  and 
good  man  to  take  by  the  hand,  and  lead  forward  into  the  world, 
young  men  of  modest  merit.  This  noble  disposition  he  man- 
ifested strongly  in  his  treatment  of  the  subject  of  this  memoir. 
He  smiled  upon  his  enterprising  undertakings,  encouraged  him 
by  the  kindest  assurances,  and  commended  him  strongly  to  the 
countenance  and  support  of  his  friends.  When  Mr.  W.  was 
about  to  negotiate  a  sale  of  his  patent-right  with  the  State  of 
South  Carolina,  Dr.  D.  furnished  him  with  a  letter  to  the  Hon. 
Charles  Cotesworth  Pickney,  from  which  we  subjoin  the  fol- 
lowing extract.  After  adverting  to  the  proposed  application 
of  Mr.  W.,  Dr.  Dwight  proceeds : — "  To  you,  sir,  it  will  be  in 
the  stead  of  many  ordinary  motives  to  know  that  your  aid 
will,  in  this  case,  be  given  to  a  man  who  has  rarely,  perhaps 
never,  been  exceeded  in  ingenuity  or  industry;  and  not  often 
in  worth  of  every  kind.  Every  respectable  man  in  this  region 
will  rejoice  to  see  him  liberally  rewarded  for  so  useful  an  ef- 
fort, and  for  a  life  of  uncommon  benefit  to  the  public. 

"  Mr.  Whitney  is  now  employed  in  manufacturing  muskets 
for  the  United  States.  In  this  business  he  has  probably  ex- 

*  Niles'  Weekly  Register. 


65 

ceeded  the  efforts  not  only  of  his  countrymen,  but  of  the  whole 
civilized  world,  by  a  system  of  machinery  of  his  own  inven- 
tion, in  which  expedition  and  accuracy  are  united  to  a  degree 
probably  without  example.  I  should  not  have  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  speak  of  him  in  so  strong  terms,  had  I  not  believed  that 
his  own  modesty  would  keep  him  from  discovering  his  real 
character." 

Governor  Wolcott,  who  cherished  similar  dispositions  to- 
wards young  men  of  merit  and  ingenuity,  gave  him  similar  let- 
ters to  Mr.  Pickney  and  Judge  Dessaussure.  These  testimo- 
nials no  doubt  contributed  much  to  inspire  confidence  in  the 
leading  men  at  the  south.  Such  efforts  on  the  part  of  eminent 
men  in  favor  of  rising  worth,  enrich  the  modest  youth  without 
impoverishing  themselves. 

To  a  number  of  respectable  gentlemen  of  New  Haven,  par- 
ticularly the  Hon.  James  Hillhouse,  the  Hon.  Elizur  Goodrich, 
the  Hon.  Simeon  Baldwin,  and  the  late  Isaac  Beers,  Esq.,  Mr. 
W.  was  under  similar  obligations  for  lending  him  the  credit  of 
their  names,  and  standing  sureties  for  him  in  the  heavy  loans 
which  his  first  great  enterprise  required,  without  which  aid  it 
could  never  have  been  carried  forward. 

The  advantages  of  a  liberal  education  to  a  man  of  mechan- 
ical invention,  as  well  as  to  the  man  of  business,  was  very  con- 
spicuous in  the  case  of  Mr.  Whitney.  By  this  means  his  powers 
of  thought,  and  his  materials  for  combination,  were  greatly  aug- 
mented. The  letters  exchanged  between  Messrs.  Miller  & 
Whitney,  both  of  whom  were  educated  men,  are  marked  by  a 
high  degree  of  intelligence,  and  are  written  in  a  style  of  great 
correctness,  and  sometimes  even  of  elegance.  None  but  men 
of  enlarged  and  liberal  minds  could  have  furnished  to  their 
counsel  the  arguments  by  which  they  gained  their  first  triumph 
over  their  legal  adversaries.  It  no  doubt  also  contributed  not 
a  little  to  conciliate  the  respect  of  those  States  which  pur- 
chased the  patent-right,  to  find  in  the  person  of  the  patentee, 
instead  of  some  illiterate  visionary  projector,  a  gentleman  of 
elevated  mind  and  cultivated  manners,  and  of  a  person  ele- 
gant and  dignified. 

In  presenting  to  the  public  the  foregoing  sketch  of  the  life  of 


66 

this  extraordinary  man,  the  writer  has  had  it  constantly  in 
view  to  render  the  narrative  useful  to  the  enterprising  mechan- 
ic and  the  man  of  business,  to  whom  Whitney  may  be  confi- 
dently proposed  as  a  model.  To  such,  it  is  believed,  the  de- 
tails given  respecting  his  various  struggles  and  embarrass- 
ments may  afford  a  useful  lesson,  a  fresh  incentive  to  perse- 
verance, and  stronger  impressions  of  the  value  of  a  character 
improved  by  intellectual  cultivation,  and  adorned  with  all  the 
moral  virtues. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  MR.  WHITNEY, 

BY 

PROFESSOR  SILLIMAN. 

THE  preceding  memoir  has  so  fully  elucidated  the  character 
of  Mr.  Whitney,  that  the  following  observations  may  perhaps 
appear  superfluous.  I  have,  however,  been  led  to  make  them, 
both  by  affection  for  the  memory  of  a  man  so  highly  valued, 
and  also  because  it  is  often  in  the  power  of  a  friend  to  give 
some  additional  touches,  even  to  a  faithful  picture. 

Mr.  Whitney  received  the  degree  of  A.  B.  in  Yale  College, 
at  the  same  commencement  (1792)  when  I  became  a  member 
of  that  institution.  I  had  only  a  general  knowledge  of  him 
until  1798,  when  I  was  made  acquainted  with  his  then  pending 
arrangement  with  the  government  of  the  United  States,  for 
the  manufacture  of  arms,  and  by  request  I  copied  some  of  the 
papers  relating  to  that  contract.  In  the  autumn  of  1799,  just 
after  I  had  accepted  an  appointment  in  the  government  of 
Yale  College,  I  was  much  interested  by  an  unexpected  appli- 
cation from  Mr.  Whitney,  to  visit  the  principal  countries  of 
Europe,  (all  indeed  which  had  cotton-growing  colonies,  in 
either  hemisphere,)  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  patents  for  the 
Cotton  Gin.  Gratifying  as  the  application  was  to  my  feelings, 
my  recent  engagements  with  the  College,  and  my  youth  and 
inexperience,  concurred  with  other  reasons  to  make  me  de- 
cline accepting  the  overture,  which  was  sufficiently  tempting 
to  my  curiosity  and  to  the  desire  of  foreign  travel. 


67 

This  affair  would  not  be  worth  mentioning,  except  that  the 
confidence  which  it  implied  naturally  led  to  a  familiar  inter- 
course of  friendship,  which  for  twenty  five  years  was  never 
clouded  for  a  moment,  and  often  gave  me  interesting  views  of 
Mr.  Whitney's  character. 

I  was  frequently  led  to  observe  that  his  ingenuity  extended 
to  every  subject  which  demanded  his  attention ;  his  arrange- 
ments, even  of  common  things,  were  marked  by  singular 
good  taste  and  a  prevailing  principle  of  order.  The  effect 
of  this  mental  habit  is  very  obvious  in  the  disposition  of 
the  buildings  and  accommodations  of  his  manufactory  of 
arms ; — although,  owing  to  the  infirmities  of  his  later  years, 
and  to  other  causes,  his  arrangements  were  never  finished 
to  the  full  extent  of  his  views.  The  machinery  has  great 
neatness  and  finish,  and  in  its  operation  evinces  a  degree 
of  precision  and  efficiency  which  gratifies  every  curious  and 
intelligent  observer.  I  have  many  times  visited  the  establish- 
ment with  strangers  and  foreigners,  who  have  gone  away  de- 
lighted with  what  they  have  seen.*  Under  all  of  the  success- 
ive administrations  of  the  general  government,  from  that  of 
the  first  President  Adams,  repeated  contracts  have  been  ob- 
tained for  the  supply  of  arms. 

Mr.  Whitney  received  substantial  proofs  of  the  approbation 
of  the  government  in  the  terms  which  he  obtained.  He  was 
personally  acquainted  with  all  the  Presidents  of  the  United 
States  from  the  beginning  of  the  government,  and  in  every 
fluctuation  of  party  he  retained  their  confidence,  although  his 
own  political  sentiments  were  decided  and  well  known.  He 
was,  from  frequent  and  long  visits  at  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, familiar  with  the  principal  officers,  and  with  the  leading 
members  of  both  Houses  of  Congress ;  and  thus  he  was  ena- 
bled to  sustain  the  influence  which  he  had  acquired,  and  even 
to  extend  it,  so  as  to  obtain  important  contracts  from  several 
of  the  State  governments. 

*  The  manufactory  has  advanced  in  these  respects  since  it  has  been  superintended 
by  Mr.  Whitney's  nephews,  the  Messrs.  Blakes,  and  to  them  it  is  indebted  for  some 
valuable  improvements  ;  and  it  is  at  present  ably  conducted  by  the  son  of  the  foun- 
der and  inheritor  of  his  name. 


68 

The  private  establishment  of  Mr.  Whitney  has  proved  a 
a  model  for  the  more  extensive  manufactories  which  are  the 
property  of  the  nation.  Into  them,  as  the  writer  of  the  fore- 
going article  has  stated,  and  as  I  have  been  informed  by  Mr- 
Whitney,  his  principal  improvements  have  been  transplanted, 
chiefly  by  the  aid  of  his  workmen,  and  have  now  become  com- 
mon property. 

A  few  years  before  Mr.  Whitney's  death  it  became  neces- 
sary to  renew  the  mill-dam  at  the  manufactory;  it  having  been 
originally  constructed  for  a  flour  mill,  and  being  both  defective 
in  plan  and  dilapidated  by  time.  Mr.  Whitney,  then  in  de- 
clining health,  superintended  every  part  of  the  business  in  per- 
son, although  its  execution  was  protracted  almost  into  the  win- 
ter, when  massive  stones  were  to  be  laid,  in  the  midst  of  cold 
water  and  ice.  It  is  necessary  only  to  inspect  the  work,  and 
the  flume  ways,  and  the  walled  borders  of  the  river  below, 
and  the  canal  which  he  constructed,  to  take  the  water  from  the 
dam  to  the  forging  shop,  to  be  satisfied  that  both  genius  and 
taste  presided  over  these  useful,  although  unostentatious  con- 
structions. The  small  river,  by  and  upon  which  they  were 
raised,  washes  the  foot  of  the  celebrated  mountain  ridge  called 
East  Rock,  as  already  mentioned  in  the  preceding  memoir. 
From  its  precipices  and  those  of  one  of  its  branches,  which 
are  composed  of  greenstone  trap,  Mr.  Whitney  selected  his 
materials  with  such  skill,  and  arranged  them  with  such  judg- 
ment and  taste,  that  the  walls,  arches,  and  passages,  and  some 
of  the  shops  and  other  buildings  constructed  of  this  rock,  are 
admired  both  for  their  solidity  and  beauty,  and  will  remain  to 
future  generations.  Some  of  the  works  are  laid  in  a  cement, 
composed,  in  part,  of  a  mixture  of  iron  rust  and  siliceous  and 
micaceous  sand,  derived  from  the  grinding  of  the  gun-barrels 
and  other  pieces  of  iron  upon  the  grindstones — a  cement  which 
appears  almost  as  firm  as  the  rocks  themselves.  There  are 
two  buildings  for  fuel :  the  one  for  charcoal,  and  the  other  for 
mineral  coal ;  both  are  finished  with  great  exactness,  by  se- 
lecting smooth  natural  faces  of  the  trap  rock,  which  are  accu- 
rately laid  in  mortar  and  carefully  pointed  ;  the  floors  are  also 
of  firm  stone,  laid  with  equal  exactness.  These  store-houses 


69 

stand  by  the  side  of  the  mountain  and  at  its  foot,  and  by  ex- 
cavating a  road  in  the  bank  above,  the  coal  carts  are  driven 
quite  up  to  the  gable  end  of  the  building,  and  their  loads  are 
discharged  into  them  simply  by  tipping  up  the  cart.  This  no- 
tice of  these  humble  buildings  is  given  to  show  Mr.  Whitney's 
exactness  in  every  thing.  It  was  a  maxim  with  him,  which  I 
have  often  heard  him  repeat,  that  there  is  nothing  worth  doing 
that  is  not  worth  doing  well.  As  far  as  circumstances  permit- 
ted, he  always  acted  up  to  this  maxim. 

The  houses  for  his  workmen,  at  the  manufactory,  are  beau- 
tifully constructed,  and  arranged  upon  one  plan  ;  they  also  are 
of  trap  rock,*  and  covered  by  a  white  cement,  and  together 
with  the  other  buildings,  the  mountain  and  river  scenery,  and 
the  bridge,f  they  give  this  picturesque  valley  no  small  degree 
of  beauty.  It  was  Mr.  Whitney's  intention  to  erect  his  own 
mansion  house  in  this  valley,  which  would  doubtless  have  then 
received  all  the  embellishment  of  which  it  is  so  susceptible. 
With  this  view  he  had  constructed  an  ample  barn,J  which  is 
a  model  of  convenience,  and  even  of  taste  and  beauty,  and 
contains  many  accommodations,  not  usually  found  in  such  es- 
tablishments. It  was  visited  and  examined  by  the  late  Presi- 
dent Monroe,  during  his  excursion  through  the  Eastern  States, 
in  1816.  It  is  perfectly  characteristic  of  Mr.  Whitney,  that 
his  attention  was  directed  even  to  the  mangers  for  the  cattle, 
and  to  their  fastenings.  The  latter  are  so  contrived,  by  means 
of  a  small  weight  at  the  end  of  the  halter,  that  the  animal 
could  always  move  his  head  with  facility,  but  could  not  draw 
out  the  rope  so  as  to  become  entangled  in  it,  nor  could  he  easi- 
ly waste  his  hay.  The  fastenings  of  the  doors,  as  well  as  all 
the  other  appendages  and  accommodations,  are  equally  in- 
genious. 

The  great  water  wheels  which  move  the  machinery  of  the 
manufactory,  are  constructed  entirely  of  wrought  iron,  com- 
bining the  greatest  strength,  durability  and  beauty,  with  a  pro- 

*  Since  Mr.  Whitney's  death,  other  houses  have  been  built  of  wood, 
t  Constructed  by  that  ingenious  architect,  Mr.  Ithiel  Town, 
t  There  is  a  farm  connected  with  the  manufactory. 

9 


70 

jectile  power  like  that  of  the  fly-wheels  in   steam   engines. 
They  are  elegant  objects,  especially  when  in  motion. 

Mr.  Whitney  did  not  forget  the  domestic  arrangements  of 
his  own  house,  which  contained  many  specimens  of  that  inge- 
nuity which  he  evinced  in  common  things,  as  well  as  in  those 
that  are  more  important.  The  several  drawers  of  his  bureaus 
were  locked  by  a  single  movement  of  one  key,  of  a  peculiar 
construction,  and  an  attempt  to  open  any  drawer  except  one 
would  prove  ineffectual,  even  with  the  right  key,  which,  how- 
ever, being  applied  in  the  proper  place,  threw  all  the  bolts  at 
one  movement.  These  bureaus  are  now  in  the  house  of  Mrs. 
Whitney. 

During  the  decline  of  his  health,  and  especially  during  his 
severest  attacks,  I  was  with  him  almost  daily,  and  saw  how 
intensely  his  powerful  and  acute  mind  was  directed  to  his  own 
case,  of  which  he  made  himself  perfect  master.*  It  has  been 
already  stated  in  the  memoir,  that  his  health  was  subverted, 
and  his  life  ultimately  terminated  by  a  very  painful  local  af- 
fection^ brought  on,  as  he  informed  me.  by  exposure  and  fa- 
tigue during  the  last  of  his  land  journeys  through  North  Car- 
olina, on  his  way  to  Georgia,  to  assert  his  just  claims,  so  long 
and  so  injuriously  frustrated.  J  He  examined  with  great  care 
and  coolness  the  best  medical  writers  on  his  disease ;  he  in- 
spected their  plates  ;  conversed  freely  with  his  professional 


*  Such  was  the  remark  made  to  him  by  one  of  the  greatest  surgeons  of  this  coun- 
try, who,  after  a  painful  examination  hi  one  of  the  great  cities,  gave  him  no  encour- 
agement to  hope  for  any  permanent  relief. 

t  Not  only  of  the  prostate  gland,  but  of  the  vicinal  organs ;  this  was  the  fatal 
disease  of  Mr.  Whitney's  illustrious  friend,  the  late  President  Dwight.  Thus  were 
removed  most  painfully,  from  life,  two  of  the  greatest  and  most  useful  men  which 
this  country  has  produced. 

t  He  made  many  journeys  to  Georgia  on  this  painful  business,  and  generally  by 
land,  hi  an  open  sulkey.  Near  the  close  of  life,  he  said  in  my  hearing,  that  all  he 
had  received  for  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin,  had  not  more  than  compensated 
him  for  the  enormous  expenses  which  he  had  incurred,  and  for  the  time  which  he 
had  devoted  during  many  of  the  best  years  of  his  life,  in  the  prosecution  of  this  sub- 
ject. He  therefore  felt  that  his  just  claims  on  the  cotton-growing  States,  especially 
on  those  that  had  made  him  no  returns  for  this  invention,  so  important  to  his  coun- 
try, were  still  unsatisfied,  and  that  both  justice  and  honor  required  that  compensation 
should  be  made. 


71 

advisers,  who  withheld  nothing  from  him,  and  he  was  not  sat- 
isfied without  such  anatomical  illustrations  as  were  furnished 
from  the  museum  of  an  eminent  professor  of  anatomy.  He 
critically  recorded  such  facts  in  his  case  as  interested  him  the 
most,  and  in  coolness  and  decision,  acted  rather  as  if  he  him- 
self had  been  the  physician  than  the  patient. 

During  this  period,  embracing  at  intervals  several  years,  he 
devised  and  caused  to  be  constructed  various  instruments,  for 
his  own  personal  use,  the  minute  description  of  which  would 
not  be  appropriate  to  this  place.  Nothing  that  he  ever  in- 
vented, not  even  the  cotton  gin,  discovered  a  more  perfect 
comprehension  of  the  difficulties  to  be  surmounted,  or  evinced 
more  efficient  ingenuity  in  the  Accomplishment  of  his  object. 
Such  was  his  resolution  and  perseverance,  that  from  his  sick 
chamber  he  wrote  both  to  London  and  Paris,  for  materials  im- 
portant to  his  plans,  and  he  lived  to  receive  the  things  he  re- 
quired, and  to  apply  them  in  the  way  that  he  had  intended. 
He  was  perfectly  successful,  so  far  as  any  mechanical  means 
could  afford  relief  or  palliation ;  but  his  terrible  malady  bore 
down  his  constitution,  by  repeated,  and  eventually  by  inces- 
sant inroads,  upon  the  powers  of  life,  which  at  last  yielded  to 
assaults  which  no  human  means  could  avert  or  sustain.  One 
of  the  important  inventions  of  that  distressing  period  is  in 
the  possession  of  the  artist  who  was  employed  to  construct  the 
instrument,*  but  it  is  to  be  feared  that  other  contrivances,  re- 
markable for  their  simplicity  and  efficiency,  as  well  as  origin- 
ality, are  but  imperfectly  remembered  by  the  friends  and  at- 
tendants. I  urged  Mr.  Whitney,  and  the  late  Dr.  Smith,  his 
attending  physician,  to  make  sure  of  these  inventions  while  it 
was  possible,  but  I  believe  no  record  was  ever  made  of  them, 
and  it  is  but  too  probable  that  the  instruments  are  lost. 

I  have  mentioned  these  facts  connected  with  Mr.  Whitney's 
last  illness,  merely  as  instances  of  his  never-sleeping  ingenuity 
and  mental  acuteness,  rendered  still  more  active,  without  be- 
ing enfeebled,  by  intense  suffering. 

I  have  seen  the  same  traits  manifested  on  occasions  far  less 

*  Mr.  Doming. 


72 

important,  but  to  him,  at  the  time,  equally  novel.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1808,  application  was  made  by  myself  and  others,  to 
Mr.  Whitney,  for  tubes  of  block  tin,  for  the  purpose  of  draw- 
ing through  an  innocuous  metal,  the  soda  water*  highly  charged 
with  carbonic  acid  gas.  Lead  and  copper  tubes  were  rejected 
on  account  of  their  poisonous  properties,  and  there  were  then 
no  facilities  in  this  country  for  constructing  the  tubes  that  were 
desired.  Mr.  Whitney  accomplished  the  object,  with  his  usual 
precision.  The  tubes  were  required  to  be  many  feet  long,  and 
strong  enough  to  resist  a  heavy  pressure.  He  caused  a  mould 
to  be  constructed  of  cast  brass,  in  two  parts,  each  con- 
taining for  about  two  feet  in  length,  one  half  of  the  cylin- 
drical cavity,  correspondmg*to  the  desired  tube.  When  the 
parts  of  the  mould  were  accurately  fitted,  by  their  faces,  and 
screwed  together,  they  contained  the  entire  cylindrical  cavity 
between  them,  and  to  secure  the  duct  through  the  tube,  a  pol- 
ished steel  rod,  of  the  proper  size,  and  made  very  slightly  ta- 
pering, was  fixed  in  the  centre  and  the  melted  metal  was  cast 
around  it;  the  rod,  being  terminated  by  a  ring,  was  easily 
knocked  out.  The  separate  parts  of  the  tube,  thus  produced, 
were  then  joined  into  one,  by  having  the  contiguous  ends  of 
two  of  them  brought  longitudinally  into  contact,  and  included 
in  another  mould,  containing  an  enlarged  cavity,  into  which 
melted  tin  was  poured.  The  duct  was  preserved  by  a  steel  rod 
passing  through  it  as  before,  and  thus  the  joint  was  perfected 
by  a  knob  of  metal,  which  at  once  united  the  two  tubes  into 
one,  gave  them  great  additional  strength,  and  furnished  a  beau- 
tiful ornament.  Nothing  could  be  more  perfect  for  the  object. 
The  moulds  are  still  in  existence,  and  were  it  necessary,  tubes 
could  be  thus  made  a  mile  long.  Mr.  Whitney  did  not  state 
that  this  method  was  original,  nor  do  I  certainly  know  whether 
it  was  ;  but  I  have  never  heard  of  a  similar  method  of  casting 
block  tin  tubes.  Mr.  Whitney  considered  it  as  so  valuable, 
that  he  chose  to  pay  for  the  moulds,  although  they  were  expen- 
sive, and  he  retained  them  with  reference  to  future  use  for 
himself. 

*  Then  just  beginning  to  be  known  in  this  country. 


73 

The  operations  of  Mr.  Whitney's  mind  were  not  so  remark- 
able for  rapidity  as  for  precision.  This  arose,  not  from  the 
want  of  mental  activity  and  ardor  of  feeling,  but  from  habit- 
ual caution,  and  from  his  having  made  it  his  rule  to  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  short  of  perfection.  Hence,  he  delayed  to  men- 
tion a  projected  invention  or  improvement  until  he  was  entire- 
ly satisfied  with  his  own  views.  He  did  not  disclose  them  until, 
in  his  own  opinion,  he  had  hit  upon  the  best  conception  and  the 
best  means  of  execution,  and  when  these  were  attained,  and  not 
before,  he  brought  his  project  forward,  or,  more  frequently,  put 
it  into  successful  operation  before  he  divulged  his  plan.  Hence, 
he  rarely  found  it  necessary  to  retrace  his  steps.  In  early  life 
he  so  effectually  disciplined  his  mind,  that  he  could  not  only 
confine  it  to  the  contemplation  of  one  subject,  but  he  could  sus- 
pend his  train  of  thought  and  the  execution  of  his  inventions, 
and  resume  them  at  distant  intervals  without  confusion  or  loss. 
He  was  very  patient  of  interruption,  and  would  cheerfully  leave 
his  own  engagements  and  suspend  his  mechanical  arrange- 
ments, his  repasts,  or  his  business,  to  attend  to  the  numerous 
applications  which  were  constantly  made  to  him,  both  by  those 
who  had,  and  those  who  had  not,  any  proper  claims  to  his 
time  and  services. 

No  man,  as  stated  in  the  memoir,  knew  better  how  to  con- 
trol the  excursions  of  an  inventive  mind.  I  have  heard  him 
speak  feelingly  of  the  ruin  often  brought  by  ingenious  men  upon 
themselves,  by  allowing  their  minds  to  wander  from  invention 
to  invention  ;  devising  many  things  and  completing  nothing ; 
and  he  considered  it  equally  his  own  duty  and  interest  to  ad- 
here inflexibly  to  those  undertakings  which  he  could  carry  into 
successful  operation,  and  to  deny  himself  the  luxury  of  a  per- 
petual mental  creation. 

With  all  his  contemplative  ingenuity  and  habitual  attention 
to  mechanical  details,  Mr.  Whitney  did  not  allow  his  mind  to 
be  narrowed  down  to  a  limited  horizon.  His  views  of  men  and 
things  were  on  the  most  enlarged  scale.  The  interests  of 
mankind,  and  especially  of  his  native  country,  as  connected 
with  government,  liberty,  order,  science,  arts,  literature,  mor- 


74 

als,  and  religion,  were  familiar  to  his  mind,  and  he  delighted  in 
conversing  with  men  of  a  similar  character. 

His  amiable  and  generous  dispositions  also  prompted  him 
strongly  to  social  intercourse.  His  countenance  and  person 
were  so  prepossessing  as  to  excite  an  active  interest,  especially 
whenever  he  spoke  ;  his  gentlemanly  manners,  marked  by  a 
calm,  but  dignified  modesty,  were  still  those  of  a  man  not  un- 
conscious of  his  own  mental  powers ;  he  was  therefore  self- 
possessed,  while  a  winning  affability  and  an  agreeable  voice 
made  his  conversation  as  attractive  as  it  was  instructive.  He 
abounded  in  information  and  in  original  thoughts ;  he  was  al- 
ways welcome  in  the  best  society,  both  at  home  and  when  he 
traveled ;  the  first  men  of  the  country,  and  from  almost  every 
State  in  the  Union,  called  on  him,  and  much  of  his  time  was 
necessarily  passed  in  society.  Before  he  had  a  family,  his 
carriage  was  often  observed  standing,  till  a  late  hour  in  the 
evening,  at  the  doors  of  some  of  his  friends,  and  he  seemed 
reluctantly  to  withdraw  to  his  manufactory,  which  was  two 
miles  from  the  town.  Mr.  Whitney  was  constant  and  warm 
in  his  friendships,  and  his  efficient  pecuniary  aid,  (after  he 
came  to  be  possessed  of  the  means,)  was  often  afforded  not 
only  to  his  friends,  but  to  persons  who  had  sometimes  no 
claims  except  those  that  addressed  themselves  to  his  kindness 
and  generosity.  Those  who  relied  upon  these  traits  were 
rarely  disappointed,  but  he  did  not  consider  himself  as  being 
'always  requited,  either  with  substantial  justice  or  with  grati- 
tude ;  a  case  which  is,  however,  not  altogether  singular  in  the 
world.  Many  thousands  of  dollars,  amounting  to  a  consider- 
able fortune,  were  lost  to  Mr.  Whitney,  through  his  generosity. 

It  is  perhaps  worthy  of  being  mentioned,  that  Mr.  Whit- 
ney's amiable  dispositions  and  power  of  pleasing  were  mani- 
fested in  the  pleasure  which  he  took  in  caressing  children,  and 
in  the  ease  with  which  he  won  their  attachment.  In  my  own 
family,  as  a  visiting  friend,  he  always  allured  the  children,  at 
once,  around  him,  and  neither  he  nor  they  were  soon  tired  of 
the  little  gambols  and  pastimes  started  for  their  amusement. 
Such  happy  dispositions  eminently  fitted  him  for  the  high  do- 
mestic happiness  which  he  found  in  his  own  family,  during  the 


75 

few  years  that  he  was  permitted  to  enjoy  their  society.  After 
he  became  convinced  that  he  could  not  survive  his  disease,  he 
manifested  a  wise  prospective  forecast  for  their  welfare ;  and  it 
is  characteristic  of  his  peculiar  turn  of  mind,  that  the  ample 
house  which,  had  he  lived,  he  had  intended  to  erect,  he 
ordered  to  be  built  after  his  death,  for  his  lady  and  their  chil- 
dren. His  fortitude  and  sense  of  decorum  never  forsook  him 
during  his  long  and  distressing  decline.  He  almost  always 
saw  his  friends,  and  some  of  them  he  would  never  suffer  to  be 
denied  ;  even  when  in  intense  pain,  he  was  cheerful,  social, 
courteous,  and,  to  the  last,  he  maintained  the  observance  of 
order  and  proper  attention  to  his  person.  He  desired  that  the 
writer  of  these  notes  should  be  in  the  house  at  the  closing  scene  ; 
and  although  this  was  prevented  by  circumstances,  he  ex- 
pressed to  him,  near  the  close  of  life,  sentiments  such  as  we 
should  wish  to  hear  from  a  dying  friend.  As  is  common  in 
cases  where  there  has  been  severe  suffering,  his  countenance,, 
after  death,  assumed  its  natural  expression,  even  in  a  greater 
degree  than  for  several  weeks  before. 

His  funeral  was  attended  by  a  large  concourse  of  his  fellow 
citizens,  who  assembled  in  one  of  the  churches,  to  which  the 
body  was  conveyed,  and  where  an  appropriate  religious  ser- 
vice was  performed. 

His  tomb  is  after  the  model  of  that  of  Scipio  at  Rome,  a 
miniature  of  which,  of  the  same  stone  of  which  it  was  orig- 
inally made,  was  sent  out  cut  from  Italy  by  Mr.  William  C. 
Woodbridge,  and  has  been  adopted  in  the  case  of  two  other 
eminent  men,  the  late  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  and  Mr.  Ashmun,  the 
founder  of  the  colony  of  Liberia.  It  is  simple,  beautiful,  and 
grand,  and  promises  to  endure  for  centuries.*  An  accurate 
drawing  of  it,  by  Mr.  R.  Bakewell,  Jr.,  is  annexed. 

*  The  foundations  of  the  monument  are  laid  at  the  bottom  of  the  grave,  by  the 
sides  of  the  coffin,  and  depressed  below  it ;  an  arch  of  stone  is  thrown  over  the  cof- 
fin, and  the  structure  then  rises,  solid  as  an  ancient  temple.  The  material  of  the 
monument  is  the  fine  grained  sandstone,  of  Chatham,  Conn.  The  several  layers  of 
stone  are  composed  each  of  one  piece  only. 

The  following  observations  of  a  distinguished  scholar  and  statesman,  elicited  in 
consequence  of  a  recent  visit  to  the  cemetery  of  New  Haven,  evince  the  estimation 


76 

On  Mr.  Whitney's  tomb  is  the  following  inscription  : 

ELI  WHITNEY, 

The  inventor  of  the  Cotton  Gin. 
Of  useful  Science  and  Arts,  the  efficient  Patron  and  Improver. 

In  the  social  relations  of  life,  a  Model  of  excellence. 

While  private  affection  weeps  at  his  tomb,  his  country  honors  his  memory. 

Born  Dec.  8, 1765.— Died  Jan.  8, 1825. 

in  which  Mr.  Whitney's  name  is  held,  by  one  who  is  fully  capable  of  appreciating 
his  merits.  After  alluding  to  the  monument  of  Gen.  Humphreys,  who  introduced  the 
fine  wooled  sheep  into  this  country,  the  stranger  remarks : — "  But  Whitney's  monu- 
ment perpetuates  the  name  of  a  still  greater  public  benefactor.  His  simple  name 
would  have  been  epitaph  enough,  with  the  addition  perhaps  of  '  the  inventor  of  the 
cotton  gin.'  How  few  of  the  inscriptions  in  Westminster  Abbey  could  be  compared 
with  that !  Who  is  there  that,  like  him,  has  given  bis  country  a  machine — the  pro- 
duct of  his  own  skill — which  has  furnished  a  large  part  of  its  population,  '  from  child- 
hood to  age,  with  a  lucrative  employment ;  by  which  their  debts  have  been  paid  off ; 
their  capitals  increased ;  their  lands  trebled  in  valve.9*  It  may  be  said  indeed  that 
this  belongs  to  the  physical  and  material  nature  of  man,  and  ought  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  what  has  been  done  by  the  intellectual  benefactors  of  mankind — the 
Miltons,  the  Shakspeares,  and  the  Newtons.  But  is  it  quite  certain  that  any  thing 
short  of  the  highest  intellectual  vigor — the  brightest  genius — is  sufficient  to  invent 
one  of  these  extraordinary  machines?  Place  a  common  mind  before  an  oration  of 
Cicero  and  a  steam  engine,  and  it  will  despair  of  rivaling  the  latter  as  much  as  the 
former ;  and  we  can  by  no  means  be  persuaded,  that  the  peculiar  aptitude  for  com- 
bining and  applying  the  simple  powers  of  mechanics,  so  as  to  produce  these  marvel- 
ous operations,  does  not  imply  a  vivacity  of  the  imagination,  not  inferior  to  that  of 
the  poet  and  the  orator.  And  then,  as  to  the  effect  on  society,  the  machine,  it  is 
true,  operates,  in  the  first  instance,  on  mere  physical  elements,  to  produce  an  accu- 
mulation and  distribution  of  property.  But  do  not  all  the  arts  of  civilization  follow 
hi  the  train?  and  has  not  he  who  has  trebled  the  value  of  land,  created  capital, 
rescued  the  population  from  the  necessity  of  emigrating,  and  covered  a  waste  with 
plenty — has  not  he  done  a  service  to  the  country  of  the  highest  moral  and  intellect- 
ual  character  ?  Prosperity  is  the  parent  of  civilization,  and  all  its  refinements ;  and 
every  family  of  prosperous  citizens  added  to  the  community,  is  an  addition  of  so 
many  thinking,  inventing,  moral  and  immortal  natures." — New  England  Magazine, 
Nov.  1831. 

*  The  words  of  Mr.  Justice  Johnson  of  South  Carolina,  in  the  opinion  in  the  case  of  Whitney 
vertua  Carter. 


APPENDIX. 


The  Effect  of  the  Invention  of  the  Cotton-Gin  on  the  Production  of  Cotton, 

THE  influence  of  mechanical  inventions  on  the  improvement  of  the  human  race, 
and  the  wealth  of  nations,  is  a  circumstance  which  has  peculiarly  impressed  the 
minds  of  practical  men  and  of  philosophic  observers  alike,  since  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Changes  in  the  condition  of  society  and  in  the  intercourse 
of  nations,  far  more  momentous  and  lasting  than  the  revolutions  previously  produced 
by  political  causes,  have,  within  the  last  fifty  years,  been  effected  by  the  action  of 
individual  minds,  in  the  development  of  neglected  physical  facts,  and  in  the  applica- 
tion of  material  agencies  to  the  use  and  benefit  of  man.  As  new  wants  have  been 
felt,  and  the  needed  uses  of  yet  undiscovered  powers  have  been  made  known  in  the 
progress  of  society,  art  and  science  have  met  each  occasion  ;  and  the  demand  for 
new  combinations  of  matter  and  motion  has  been  continually  answered  by  widely- 
various,  unwearied  invention. 

The  application  of  steam  to  machinery,  to  navigation  and  to  land  carriage,  the  in- 
vention of  the  spinning-frame,  and  of  the  cotton-gin,  are  imposing  instances  of  the 
operation  of  such  causes,  so  insignificant  in  their  inception,  so  immensely  important 
in  their  results,  to  the  convenience  and  happiness  of  mankind.  The  agency  of  Watt, 
Fulton,  Stevens,  Telford,  Arkwright,  and  Whitney,  in  the  production  of  the  present 
wealth  of  the  world,  and  in  the  development  of  the  before-unappreciated  resources 
of  the  rapidly  improving  commonwealths  and  empires  of  progressive  Christendom, 
has  been  greater  than  that  of  all  other  human  causes.  What  may  have  been  ac- 
complished by  government,  by  policy  and  by  science,  for  the  promotion  of  the  gen- 
eral good  of  civilized  nations,  is  little  in  comparison  with  the  production  of  these  indi- 
vidual minds  acting  wholly  without  the  sphere  of  political  agencies,  and  has  been 
wholly  subordinate  and  secondary  to  it. 

These  views  of  the  relative  influence  and  importance  of  merely  personal,  private 
agency,  and  of  national  or  governmental  movements,  would  have  startled  the  world 
in  the  last  century,  and  would  have  received  a  contemptuous  condemnation ;  but  to 
the  present  generation,  they  have  been  made  familiar  by  reiteration,  almost  to 
triteness. 

The  increase  of  the  production  of  a  cheap  material  for  woven  fabrics,  adapted  in 
some  degree  to  the  use  of  the  human  race  in  every  climate  and  region,  is  a  matter 
of  more  importance  to  commerce  and  to  the  interests  of  civilization,  than  may  ap- 
pear to  a  superficial  observer.  The  supply  of  this  primary  necessity  of  man,  (hardly 
less  essential  than  that  of  food,)  with  an  article  capable  of  being  substituted,  to  a 
great  extent,  for  every  other  material  hitherto  converted  into  cloth,  has  been,  during 
the  present  half-century,  by  far  the  most  important  element  in  the  commercial  rela- 
tions of  the  United  States  and  Europe, — has  been  the  source  of  the  largest  amount 
of  acquired  wealth,  and  has  given  employment  to  the  greatest  aggregate  of  profit- 
able labor.  There  is  no  parallel  in  history  to  the  changes  which  the  cotton  trade  has 
made  in  the  direction  of  commerce,  in  the  employment  of  mechanical  industry,  in 
the  dress,  habits,  conveniences,  and  health  of  mankind,  and  in  the  intercourse  and 
mutual  dependence  of  nations.  And  when  it  is  remembered,  that  the  material  was, 
by  the  invention  of  the  COTTON-GIN,  furnished  to  the  manufacturer  with  the  cheap- 


78 

ness,  abundance  and  dispatch  which  insured  these  great  results,  it  becomes  manifest 
that  the  importance  of  this  mechanism  has  not  been  overrated. 

The  memoir,  which  this  statement  accompanies,  furnishes  some  facts  relating  to 
the  consequences  of  jVIr.  Whitney's  invention  to  the  growth  of  cotton ;  but  the  in- 
crease of  the  production,  manufacture,  and  exportation  of  that  great  American  sta- 
ple during  the  years  which  have  intervened,  has  created  a  necessity  for  an  extended 
view  of  the  statistics  of  the  subject.  The  limits  of  the  present  sketch  permit  only 
an  outline  or  abstract  of  the  facts.  It  is  a  topic  which  has  largely  employed  the 
faculties  of  commercial  writers  and  statesmen  in  the  United  States  and  in  Great 
Britain,  the  results  of  whose  labors  may  be  obtained  from  the  public  documents  of 
the  American  government,  and  from  the  various  volumes  of  Hunt's  "  Merchants' 
Magazine," — a  periodical  of  great  merit  and  value  for  commercial  statistics  of  this 
and  similar  character. 

Numerous  statistical  tables  have  been  published  in  works  of  this  description,  ex- 
hibiting the  annual  cultivation  of  cotton  in  the  different  States  of  the  Union  and 
throughout  the  world,  and  also  showing  the  amount  and  value  of  the  exportations  of 
cotton  from  the  United  States  to  the  various  countries  of  Europe.  The  influence  of 
the  cotton-gin  on  the  increase  and  relative  amount  of  American  production  and  ex- 
portation, is  thus  exhibited  by  a  statement  of  the  growth  here  and  elsewhere,  in  cer- 
tain years,  at  fixed  periods. 

Tables,  exhibiting  at  great  length  all  the  particulars  of  production  and  export,  for 
each  year,  from  1791  to  the  present  time,  are  given  in  several  articles  in  Hunt's 
"  Merchants'  Magazine,"  especially  in  a  History  of  the  American  Cotton  Trade,  by 
JAMES  H.  LANMAN,  hi  Vol.  IV,  page  201,  of  that  work.  A  document  prepared  by 
the  Treasury  Department  in  1836,  in  obedience  to  a  resolution  passed  in  Congress, 
presents  also  very  ample  and  valuable  tabular  details  of  the  progress  of  the  cotton 
trade  and  culture  for  more  than  forty  years.  The  Merchants'  Magazine  contains 
also  a  very  valuable  series  of  articles  on  this  subject,  (by  Professor  M'Cay,  of  the 
University  of  Georgia,)  presenting  minute  statements  of  the  annual  production  and 
exportation  of  cotton  during  recent  years.  (Merchants'  Magazine,  Vol.  IX,  p.  516  ; 
Vol.  XI,  p.  517;  Vol.  XIII,  p.  507.)  From  these,  most  of  the  particulars  here 
given  are  derived ;  and  to  these  and  the  American  Almanac  for  1837,  and  to  the 
Annual  Reports  on  Commerce  and  Navigation  prepared  by  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment, the  inquiring  reader  is  referred  for  the  complete  statistics  of  the  agriculture, 
commerce  and  manufacture  of  cotton. 

The  grand  results,  however,  may  be  viewed  effectively  from  a  few  points  of  time, 
selecting  the  statistics  of  certain  dates,  taken  at  random.  In  the  year  1791,  the 
whole  cotton  crop  of  the  United  States  was  but  2,000,000  of  pounds.  In  1845, 
(fifty -two  years  after  the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin,)  it  was  more  than  1,000,000,000 
of  pounds,  (2,395,000  bales,  averaging  above  430  pounds.)  In  1791,  the  cotton 
annually  produced  in  the  whole  world  was  estimated  at  490,000,000  Ibs.,  of  which 
the  United  States,  consequently,  produced  only  2 Is"'  ^n  1845,  the  total  supply 
furnished  in  the  markets  of  the  civilized  world,  was  1,169,600,000  Ibs.,  (2,720,000 
bales,}  of  which  the  United  States  produced,  therefore,  more  than  SEVEN-EIGHTHS. 

In  1791,  the  whole  amount  of  cotton  exported  from  the  United  States  was  189,316 
pounds, — this  being  the  first  definite  statement  of  the  kind  on  record.  Previous  to 
that  year,  the  growth  and  sale  of  cotton  had  been  so  trifling  in  amount,  as  to  be  ac- 
counted unworthy  of  any  notice  in  the  statistics  of  American  commerce,  or  even  in 


79 

those  of  Southern  agriculture.  Although  it  is  known  that  even  in  1770  there 
were  shipped  to  Liverpool,  THREE  bales  of  cotton  from  New  York.  FOUR  bales  from 
Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  THREE  from  North  Carolina — and  though,  in  1784,  (the 
year  after  the  Treaty  which  closed  the  Revolutionary  War  and  secured  the  recog- 
nition of  American  Independence  by  Great  Britain,)  a  vessel  that  carried  EIGHT  bales 
of  cotton  from  the  United  States  to  Liverpool  was  seized  in  that  port,  on  the  ground 
that  so  large  a  quantity  of  COTTON  in  a  single  cargo  could  not  be  the  produce  of  the 
United  States, — yet  there  was  no  decisive  improvement  in  the  production  or  exporta- 
tion of  this  article  down  to  the  era  of  Whitney's  invention.  And  in  1792,  (the  year 
preceding  the  invention,)  the  quantity  exported  was  even  less  than  in  1791,  amount- 
ing only  to  138,328  Ibs. — a  decrease  of  50,988  Ibs.  in  one  year.  There  was  no  in- 
dication, from  1770  to  1792,  of  any  tendency  to  a  large  increase  of  the  production 
of  cotton ;  and- however  great  the  adaptation  of  the  soil  and  climate  of  the  South  to 
its  culture,  and  however  strong  the  encouragements  afforded  by  the  extended  de- 
mand and  high  price  in  Britain  and  on  the  European  continent,  no  one,  at  that 
time,  seems  to  have  expected  that  this  was  ever  to  be  one  of  the  great  staples  and 
exports  of  the  United  States. 

In  1793,  the  year  of  the  invention,  the  whole  cotton  crop  of  the  United  States 
was  5,000,000  Ibs.,  and  the  total  exportation  487,600  Ibs.  In  1794,  when  the  cot- 
ton-gin was  first  extensively  introduced  into  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  (then  the 
principal  region  of  that  production,)  the  whole  crop  increased  to  8,000,000  Ibs.,  and 
the  exportation  to  1,601,760  Ibs.  In  1800,  when  the  machine  had  been  thrown 
open  to  the  people,  without  limitation,  from  regard  to  the  legal  rights  of  the  patentee, 
the  total  production  of  cotton  in  the  United  States,  during  the  year,  amounted  to 
35,000,000  Ibs.,  of  which  17,789,803  Ibs.  were  exported.  In  1805,  the  whole  produc- 
tion was  70,000,000  Ibs.,  and  the  amount  of  upland  cotton  exported,  29,602,428  Ibs. 
—(value,  $9,445,000.)  In  1810,  the  crop  was  increased  to  85,000,000  Ibs.,  and  the 
exportation  of  upland  cotton  to  84,657,384  Ibs.  In  18,15,  the  whole  of  the  United 
States  crop  was  100,000,000  Ibs.,  and  the  exportation  of  upland  cotton  74,548,796 
Ibs.  In  1820,  the  whole  United  States  crop  was  160,000,000  Ibs.— the  exportation 
of  upland  116,291,137  Ibs.,  valued  at  $22,308,667.  In  1825,  crop  255,000,000  Ibs. 
—exportation  of  upland,  166,784,629  Ibs.  In  1830,  crop  350,000,000,— exportation, 
290,311,937.  In  1835,  crop  475,000,000— exportation,  379,000,000.  In  1840, 
crop  880,000,000— exportation  valued  at  $63,870,307.  In  1845,  the  United  States 
cotton  crop  was  1,029,850,000  pounds,  and  the  exportation  of  cotton  862,580,000 
pounds — the  domestic  consumption  being  167,270,000  pounds. 

The  recent  annexation  of  the  immense  cotton-lands  of  Texas,  the  abolition  of  the 
import  duty  on  American  cotton  in  Great  Britain,  and  the  vast  and  rapid  increase  of 
the  manufacture  of  cotton-fabrics  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  are  evidences  of 
the  certainty  of  a  further  increase  in  the  production  of  cotton  in  this  country. 
Enormous  as  has  been  the  progress  of  this  staple,  from  1791  to  1845,  it  is  destined 
to  a  yet  greater  extension  in  amount  and  value. 

The  exclusion  of  East  India  cotton  from  its  previous  monopoly  of  the  markets  of 
the  civilized  world,  from  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  was  mainly  due  to 
the  introduction  of  the  cotton-gin  in  the  Southern  States  of  the  American  Union, 
which  substituted  the  rapid  operations  of  machinery  for  the  tedious  and  costly  labor 
of  human  hands  in  the  preparation  of  the  crop  for  the. use  of  the  manufacturer. 
The  recent  attempts  of  the  British  Government  and  the  East  India  Company  to  re- 


80 

store  the  successful  production  of  cotton  in  Hindostan,  have  consisted  largely  in  tho 
introduction  of  American  improvements,  especially  of  "TuE  AMERICAN  COTTON- 
GIN,"  into  those  provinces  which  are  adapted  to  the  culture.  The  greater  cheap- 
ness of  labor,  and  even  the  superior  quality  of  the  product  (in  the  province  of 
Dharwar)  were  found  to  avail  nothing,  without  the  advantages  of  American  ma- 
chinery. 

The  pecuniary  advantage  of  this  invention  to  the  United  States  is  by  no  means 
fully  presented  by  an  exhibition  of  the  value  of  the  exports  of  cotton,  (amounting  to 
more  than  $1,400,000,000  m  the  last  forty-three  years,)  nor  by  the  immense  pro- 
portion of  the  means  which  it  has  furnished  this  country  to  meet  the  enormous  debts 
continually  incurred  for  imports  from  Britain  and  the  European  continent — COTTON 
having  for  many  years  constituted  ^,  j,  or  JQ  of  the  value  of  the  exports  of  the 
Union.  But  it  was  the  introduction  of  the  cotton-gin  which  first  gave  a  high  value 
and  permanent  market  to  the  Public  Lands  in  the  southwest.  The  rapid  settle- 
ment and  improvement  of  almost  the  entire  States  of  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Lou- 
isiana, Florida,  and  Texas,  is  mainly  due  to  the  enlarged  production  of  cotton  con- 
sequent upon  the  invention  of  Whitney.  The  States  of  Georgia  and  Tennessee 
have  also  been  largely  benefited  by  the  same  means,  in  the  disposal  of  their  domain, 
a  vast  portion  of  which  must  have  remained  unoccupied  and  valueless  but  for  the 
immense  increase  of  facilities  for  the  preparation  of  cotton  for  the  market.  In  the 
three  States  of  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana,  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  of 
the  General  Government  amounted  to  18,099,505  acres,  during  the  eleven  years 
ending  on  the  thirtieth  of  June,  1844, — yielding  to  the  National  Treasury  more  than 
$30,000,000.  The  sales  of  upland  cotton  lands  by  the  United  States  land-offices, 
have  amounted  to  many  tens  of  millions  of  acres ;  and  none  have  been  sold  at  a 
lower  rate  than  $1.25  an  acre — a  large  proportion  at  a  higher  rate. 

It  is  to  be  remarked,  finally,- that  the  cotton-gins  now  in  use  throughout  the  whole 
South  are  truly  the  origina^invention  of  Whitney, — that  no  improvement  or  suc- 
cessful variation  of  the  essential  parts  has  yet  been  effected.  The  actual  character- 
istics of  the  machine,  (the  cylinder  and  brush,)  the  sole  real  instruments  by  which 
the  seed  is  removed  and  the  cotton  cleaned,  REMAIN,  in  cotton-gins  of  even  the  most 
recent  manufacture,  PRECISELY  AS  WHITNEY  LEFT  THEM.  The  principle  has  not 
been  altered  since  the  first  cotton-gin  was  put  in  motion  by  the  inventor,  though 
great  improvements  have  been  made  in  the  application  and  direction  of  the  moving 
forces,  in  the  employment  of  steam-power,  in  the  running-gear,  and  other  incidentals. 
Every  one  of  the  various  cotton-gins  in  use,  under  the  names  of  different  makers, 
contains  the  essentials  of  Whitney's  patent,  without  material  change  or  addition. 
The  brush  and  the  cylinder  remain,  like  Fulton's  padd'e- wheel,  unchanged  in  form  and 
necessity,  however  vast  the  improvements  in  the  machinery  that  causes  the  motion. 

A  more  imposing  result  of  mechanical  ingenuity  directed  to  the  benefit  of  a  whole 
nation,  and,  through  it,  of  mankind,  has  not  been  recorded  in  the  history  of  the  hu- 
man mind.  Certainly  there  is  no  patriotic  American  that  will  not  rejoice  to  accord  to 
this  eminently  useful,  though  basely-wronged  inventor,  the  judgment  so  well  express- 
ed by  Mr.  Lanman,  (Merchant's  Magazine,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  208, 209,)— that  "  Whitney 
earned  the  credit  of  giving  a  spring  to  the  agriculture  of  the  South,  which  has  been 
continued,  unimpaired,  to  this  day, — a  credit  that  will  endure  while  the  cotton- 
plant  whitens  the  plantations  of  the  South  with  its  snowy  harvests,  or  the  machinery 
of  the  cotton-factory  clatters  upon  the  waterfall!" 


"V 


